


Pride, Prejudice, and Potter

by halosun



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Everyone knows whats up but them, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hogwarts, Humor, James and Lily slowly realizing their feelings for each other, James tries to be a better person, Lily is in denial, Marauder's Era, Romance, Sixth and Seventh Years, Slow Burn, VERY loosely based on Pride and Prejudice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-04-03 22:12:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14005923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halosun/pseuds/halosun
Summary: The sixth and seventh years. Or, how two stubborn Gryffindors gradually stumbled their way into love.





	1. Chapter 1

 The morning of September 1st, 1976 dawned rainy and cold. Kings Cross station was especially crowded that day, and Lily Evans and her parents weaved slowly through the throngs of muglle businessmen, station workers, and families. Today was the start of Lily’s sixth year at Hogwarts, and a number of things had happened since she last stepped foot in the castle’s halls. It would be an interesting time going back, and Lily wasn’t quite sure yet if she was looking forward to it or not.

The crowd was growing thicker, and Lily’s mother checked her watch nervously, but the cart with Lily’s heavy school trunk and her cat Morgona managed to part the crowds and the little group arrived at the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 with eight minutes until eleven o’clock.

“Lily! Lily!” came a call from behind them, and Lily turned and grinned broadly at a tall brown girl with curly hair waving excitedly and also pushing a cart with a trunk full of Hogwarts supplies.

“Mary!” Lily cried, giving her a hug. “Merlin, it’s been so long! You have to tell me all about France, I’m so jealous...”

“Oh, don’t worry” Mary McDonald said with a wink. “There’s plenty to tell, including some news about a certain person that you may find interesting…but how are you Mr. and Mrs. Evans!” She turned to shake hands with Lily’s parents, ignoring Lily’s protests to stop teasing the story.

Mary, a fellow Muggleborn, was one of Lily’s closest friends and had visited the Evans house several times before, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans greeted her kindly in response.

“We should be getting on the platform soon,” Lily said with a quick look at her watch after everyone had said their hellos. Mary nodded.

“Have a good term, love.” Mr. Evans said, giving his daughter a hug. “Write to us if you need anything.”

“Remember your appointment on Tuesday, Dad,” Lily said. “And see if Tuney can take off work to help out a little bit, I’m sure she’d be willing if you asked to.”

“Yes, yes, don’t worry dear we’ll be fine,” Mrs. Evans smiled and kissed Lily goodbye. “Now go, you girls need to get on the train.”

With one last wave, Lily and Mary walked over to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 and leaned casually against the bricks. They slid sideways through it and found themselves swept up in the crowd of students on Platform 9 and ¾. Lily smiled up at the familiar image of the scarlet Hogwarts Express billowing smoke and obscuring the parents and students crowded on the platform in a thick haze. In spite of her fears about going back, her heart couldn’t help but give a quick leap of happiness and excitement at the sight.  

“Mary! Lily!” cried a voice above them, and they squinted up to see their friend and fellow Gryffindor sixth year Marlene Smith, a freckled girl with strawberry blonde hair beaming down at them from a window. “C’mon, I’ve already got us a compartment,” she called down.

“How are you parents doing?” Mary asked Lily quietly as they dragged their trunks on to the train.

It had been a hard summer for the Evans family. After 27 years of working at the Cokeworth factory and breathing in the polluted air and smoke, Mr. Evans had developed a nasty cough. This came as a shock to Lily, who had not been there to see the gradual decline in her father’s health, and she pleaded with him to go see a doctor. Finally, he had relented and had come back with the news that he had lung cancer. Lily was horrified. She tossed out all the cigarettes in the house and made both her parents swear never to touch them again, and the rest of the summer was spent helping Mrs. Evans drag Mr. Evans to various doctors and specialists. She even got a job at a Muggle coffee shop to help pay for the expensive visits. Going back to Hogwarts meant that she wouldn’t be able to look out for her parents anymore though, and Mary was the only other person who knew of her fears about leaving them.

“Dad is very stubborn,” Lily said, “But Mum is stubborner, and I think she’ll force him to keep going to the doctor. I wish he would quit his job though; the smoking definitely didn’t help but it was almost certainly the bloody factory air that caused this.”

“Can’t your Mum get a job to help out?” Mary muttered as they made their way down the train.

“She offered, but Dad’s just got too much pride. Honestly, he can be as bad as James Potter sometimes…”

“You talking about me, Evans?” came a loud voice, and James Potter himself bounced out of the closest compartment, grinning broadly. A shiny new Quidditch captain badge was pinned to his shirt and his chest was puffed out proudly to display it.

Lily glared at him. “All bad things, Potter,” she said.

“You lot want to sit with us?” James asked, undeterred by her less than warm welcome. “There’s plenty of room.”

Lily glanced into the compartment to see Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew playing a game of Exploding Snap. At that very moment, there was a loud boom, and Peter’s head emerged out of a cloud of purple smoke, his eyebrows looking rather singed. “Er...that is if Wormtail doesn’t set the whole train on fire” James said. Mary giggled. 

“No thank you, we have our own compartment to get to, excuse me” Lily said coolly. She started to drag her trunk forward again but was abruptly blocked by James’s arm.

“Aw, come on Evans, what’s the harm?” he whined.

“The harm,” Lily snarled, “Is you not being able to take no for an answer.  Really, Potter, I had hoped that maybe you had grown up a bit during the summer, but obviously you have not. Now, MOVE.”

“Alright, then,” James muttered, looking offended, but he removed his arm and slunk back into the compartment without another word.

Lily was still fuming as she and Mary reached the back of the train where Marlene was sitting along with fellow Gryffindor sixth year Zahra Shafiq, a pretty Egyptian girl with long black hair.

“What’s got your knickers in a twist, Lily?” Marlene laughed as they stored away their trunks and let Morgana out of her cage to stretch a bit.

Mary rolled her eyes. “James Potter,” she said. “Honestly, Lily, that was really quite tame for him, why’d you have blow up on him like that?”

“Because he’s still walking around like he owns the school! Like we couldn’t _possibly_ turn down an offer to sit with _James Potter_ , the renowned _Quidditch star_. He’s going to be even worse this year now that he’s been made captain.”

“He was just being nice!” Mary laughed, but Lily ignored her.

“I bet he’s hexing some poor first year right now just for looking at him the wrong way,” she said. She sat down in one of the seats and crossed both her arms and legs, scowling.

“I’m sure he’s grown up since last year,” Zahra piped up. “Boys are always idiots when they’re fifteen…” (Zahra had three older brothers) “…and you did give him a right awful lecture last year.” She chuckled.

“Yeah Lils, you may have finally knocked some sense into him!” Mary said brightly. “Honestly, it seemed like he was just trying to bury the hatchet. 

Lily scoffed doubtfully.

Mary sighed. “In any case,” she said. “While we’re on the subject of James Potter, I have some news that may interest you all, particularly you, Lily.”

“oooh” said Zahra and Marlene, crowding around her. Lily leaned in too, interested in spite of herself. 

“You all know I went on holiday in France this summer?” Mary said.

“Yeah” the girls said in unison.

“Well, guess who I saw while we were at the Louvre?” said Mary. “James Potter! He was there with his mum and dad I think, and some very pretty French looking girl was showing them around.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Couldn’t that have just been a tour guide?” Lily said.

Mary snorted. “Only if the tour guides in France are rather, er, _touchy_ with their tours. ‘ _Oh Mr. Potter let me show you zis beautiful painting over ‘ere_ ’” she said, leaning against Zahra and simpering as she clutched her arm. Zahra and Marlene dissolved into giggles, but Lily frowned.

“So what are you saying, Potter has a girlfriend now? _That_ doesn’t sound much like him.”

“Maybe, maybe not” Mary said. “But at the very least it explains why he didn’t ask you out when he saw you today. You may finally be rid of him.”

“Hmph” was all Lily said to that though as she leaned back in her seat and let Mary continue her story.

True, Potter hadn’t asked her out earlier, but she had attributed that to her wanting to get away from him as soon as possible. He may not have simply had the time. But all of their interactions since she yelled at him after the DADA OWL last year had been rather tense, and maybe he _was_ really just trying to bury the hatchet. If he had some foreign girlfriend she didn’t need to worry about him bothering her this year anyways, so why wasn’t she more glad to hear about it? Shaking herself, she forced herself to listen to Mary talk about all her French holiday as the Hogwarts Express made its way through the stormy Scottish countryside. 

* * *

 

The rain had picked up as the Hogwarts Express pulled in Hogsmeade station, and by the time the horseless carriages had brought everyone up to the castle it was a full-on downpour. Everyone leapt from their carriages in an effort to get inside as quickly as possible.  The girls raced up the front steps so fast that Lily almost collided with Severus Snape, who was standing at the top of the steps with a desperate look in his eyes.

“Lily…” he croaked.

“Do you hear someone talking, Lily?” Mary said angrily.

“What do you want, Severus?” Lily sighed, crossing her arms.

“I… another chance, Lily, _please,_ I miss y-“

“But I’ve given you another chance,” Lily said. “Several, in fact. And yet that didn’t stop you from calling your so-called best friend a Mudblood.”

Snape flinched at the word. “I never meant…”

“...that _I_ was a Mudblood? But you think everyone else of my birth is. What you meant doesn’t matter, Sev” Lily said fiercely. “But your words do. Now excuse me, you’re blocking the way into the Entrance Hall.”

She brushed past him without a second glance and Mary, Marlene and Zahra followed, all throwing him dirty looks.

James, who had seen the entire scene, amazingly had refrained from getting himself involved (mainly due to Remus having a tight grip on the back of his robes). But he couldn’t resist knocking his shoulder against Snape’s as he walked past.

“Oops,” he growled. But Snape didn’t even seem to feel it as he remained rooted to the spot, looking devastated as the rain poured down on his head.

The welcoming feast managed to put most of the troubling thoughts of the day out of Lily’s mind, and at the end of the night she and the rest of the Gryffindors dragged their feet up to the Gryffindor Tower feeling happy and full. Lily’s dormitory was made up of herself, Mary, Marlene, Zahra, and a Scottish girl named Blair Abercrombie. The combination of the feast and the relentless downpour outside seemed to have made everyone tired, and they all climbed into bed without much talking. Lily fell asleep almost at once.

She dreamed of that fateful day by the lake after the Defense Against the Dart Arts OWL.

_“Leave him ALONE!”_

_“Alright, Evans?”_

_“You think you’re funny. But you’re just an arrogant bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone.”_

_“I will if you go out with me, Evans. Go on, go out with me and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.”_

_“I wouldn’t go out with you if it was the choice between you and the giant squid!”_

_“There you go, you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus…”_

_“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!”_

The dream shifted, and she was standing in the Gryffindor common room later that night in her dressing gown.

  _“Evans, Evans! C’mon I just want to talk!”_

_“Potter, I just spent the last 15 minutes trying to get Severus to bugger off and I’m REALLY not in the mood.”_

_“I shouldn’t have jinxed Snivellus earlier…well he deserved it after he called you THAT but…”_

_“When are you going to grow up, Potter? You can’t just go around hexing people for the fun of it…_

_“…It wasn’t just for the fun of it, he’s a slimy little elitist git! You can’t honestly STILL be defending him, Evans!_

_“I am NOT defending him. But no matter who it is it doesn’t make what you do right!_

_“But…”_

_“NO. I don’t want to hear it! I’m tired, I lost one of my best friends today and I am DONE WITH THIS CONVERSATION.”_

Lily woke up with a start, her heart racing. She glanced over at her watch and swore. It was only 4:32 AM. She rolled over in bed and willed herself to go back to sleep. It was funny, she had spent the whole summer trying her hardest not to think about Severus Snape or James Potter, but as soon as she was back at Hogwarts her brain seemed determined that she should think of nothing else. 

 

~End of Chapter 1~

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Italicized quotes at end of the chapter property of JK Rowling*
> 
> Thank you for sticking all the way to the end of the chapter! I have the next several chapters pre-written, they just need to be edited, so I will try to keep to a schedule of updating every two weeks or so. 
> 
> This is mostly just a fun exercise for me to imagine how James and Lily may have gotten together, and as I said in the tags it is VERY loosely based on the Pride and Prejudice story, the scene by the lake after the DADA OWL functioning as the first proposal in P&P, so this story starts mostly the aftermath of that.
> 
> Kudos/Comments always appreciated :)


	2. Chapter 2

Breakfast the next morning was a trying affair. After waking up in the middle of the night from a particularly troubling set of dreams, Lily had been unable to fall back to sleep. Not being a morning person in the first place, being up since 5:00 AM had put her in a terrible mood, and a certain subject of her dreams seemed determined to make her mood even worse.

James Potter and Sirius Black had apparently decided that the best way to celebrate the beginning of term was to charm all the muffins and scones on the tables of the Great Hall to float just out of reach when anyone reached for one. Lily had to actually stand on her bench to capture a runway blueberry muffin (her favorite) and she sat down to eat it with a scowl.

“I really wish they would stop doing things like this” she grumbled as she slathered butter on the still wriggling muffin.

Zahra rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on Lily, it’s not like it’s harming anyone. It’s just a bit of fun! Look, even Dumbledore thinks it’s funny.” She pointed to the teachers table, where the headmaster was chuckling merrily at a cranberry scone that had just floated past his nose.

Lily only grunted in response, her mouth full of muffin.

Marlene, who had been listening to the whole exchange, leaned over her oatmeal with a funny look in her eye. “You know, Lily, I’m starting to think that there’s a reason why you’re so annoyed with James Potter all of a sudden.”

Zahra laughed. “What do you mean? She’s been annoyed with James Potter since first year.”

Marlene waved her hand dismissively. “Yes, but it was always when he was actually being a git, not for little things like muffin pranks.” She looked sympathetically at Lily. “I think you’re still upset about losing Snape and you want to take it out on someone. Potter is just the easiest target.”

Swallowing the rest of her muffin with some difficulty, Lily glared at Marlene. “I am NOT still upset about Severus,” she said. “We had already been growing apart for some time when that…incident… happened. And maybe if Potter would stop making an ass out of himself by asking me out every five seconds, I might actually be able to stand him.”

Marlene shrugged and turned to wave over her boyfriend Jack McKinnon, who had just arrived at the Gryffindor table followed closely by a very excited looking Mary.

“Speaking of Potter asking you out…” said Mary to Lily as she sat down next to her. “Like I said earlier, I’m not sure you’re going to have that problem this year. Look.”

She pointed down the Gryffindor table where the Marauders were sitting together. Sirius and Peter were gorging themselves on pastries and Remus seemed to be nodding off into his coffee, but James was laughing with a very pretty auburn-haired girl who Lily had never seen before. The girl picked up a piece of toast and (to Lily’s horror) fed it to James, who took a huge bite and grinned at her.

“Who is _that_?” Lily yelped.

“James’s mystery French girl,” Mary smirked. “Apparently she goes to Hogwarts.”

“Oh, I know who that is,” Zahra said suddenly.

Everyone looked at her. “You do?” Lily said incredulously. “How?”

Zahra blushed. “I met her at one of my dad’s Ministry parties.” Zahra’s father worked for the Ministry, and the Shafiq’s were a very old, important pureblood family. “Her name is Marguerite Castille and she’s a fifth year Ravenclaw. Her parents own a couple of Quidditch teams over in France, but I think they moved to England when she was around eight? They must be family friends with the Potters”.

Marguerite, apparently having finished breakfast, wrapped her arms around James and gave him a long good-bye kiss. She walked back over to the Ravenclaw table, her long auburn hair swishing behind her.

Mary snorted. “I think her and Potter are a lot more than _family friends_.”

Marlene giggled. “Well at least we know he has a type,” she said, eyeing Lily’s long red plait.

“Shut up,” Lily said.

* * *

 

Lily’s first class of the day was Potions, which she was secretly dreading. Potions had always been one of her favorite classes, but that was with Severus by her side. They two were the best in the year, and no matter how much they argued Lily could always count on him as a reliable and fun partner in Slughorn’s class.

But, Lily thought as she made her way down to the dungeons, that era was over. Severus had made his choice, and as much as it hurt her, she had to learn to live with it.

She walked into the Potions classroom, her heart beating unnaturally fast. It was a much smaller class than last year. Severus was still sitting at their old table. Lily looked around wildly for another spot, and it was with a feeling of relief that she saw Remus Lupin sitting alone in the front row.

“Remus!” she called, sitting down beside him. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Remus was the Marauder who Lily was on best terms with due to both of them being prefects.

 Remus smiled at her, and Lily noticed he looked quite ill. His eyes were tired and his answering “Hello, Lily,” was slightly hoarse.

Lily frowned. “Are you ok? You look a little sick”.

There was a snort from a few rows back, and Lily turned angrily to see Snape look quickly back down at his cauldron, evidently eavesdropping on their conversation. She opened her mouth to tell him off, but Remus warningly touched her arm, and she turned back around reluctantly.

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m a little under the weather, but it’s not contagious. I’ll be ok in a few days.”

“So,” Lily said, looking around at their fellow classmates. “It’s you, me, and Jasper Kronos, are we the only Gryffindors?”

Remus shrugged. “Apparently so. Peter didn’t get the marks, and Sirius said that he’d ‘rather eat a pile of dragon dung than watch Snape’s greasy hair drip into his cauldron fumes three times a week’, so he’s not taking it either.”

Lily smiled, a little uncomfortably. “What about Potter?”

“Oh you know how much James hates Potions…" 

Lily laughed. “That’s because it’s the one thing he isn’t good at!”

“Right,” Remus smiled. “Although Marguerite has free period this time as well, so he probably just wanted to…”

He was cut off by Slughorn striding through the classroom door, beaming at the little class assembled.

“Good morning, good morning everyone!” he said jovially. “Welcome to NEWT level Potions! I am pleased to see that you all have decided to continue in your studies, as this room contains some of the finest Potioneers we have at Hogwarts. His eyes traveled over Lily, then Snape sitting a few rows behind her. He looked a little surprised that they weren’t sitting together but thankfully, thought Lily, decided not to comment on it.

After Slughorn had given out the instructions for that day’s potion and everyone had gotten their ingredients, Lily leaned back over to Remus. “What were you saying about James and Marguerite earlier?” she asked. 

 “Just that they both had free period today and probably wanted to spend it together,” Remus shrugged. “Why do you ask?” 

“Just curious,” Lily said, stirring her cauldron to hide her rapidly reddening face. “So what’s the situation…are they like…”

Remus really was the only Marauder she could have had this conversation with. Sirius would have teased her endlessly and Peter would accidently let it all slip to James somehow, but Remus just smiled and said “Yes, they’re dating.”

“Since when?” Lily asked in a determinately casual voice.

“The end of this summer,” Remus said. “Marguerite’s parents are close to James’s, and I think they’ve known each other for a while but James was always interested in er—other girls, so he didn’t really pay much attention to her until this summer.” He added his powdered porcupine quills to the potion, which hissed and turned a bright turquoise color. “You’d like her, Lily, she’s very nice-- you’re both fans of Muggle art museums. 

“Hmm” Lily said. She was focusing very hard on measuring her powdered moonstone. “Well, at least he won’t be asking me out in front of the entire school anymore.”

Remus winced.  “Yeah, about that… James actually wants to talk to you and apologize for that whole situation last year.”

“I thought he already had,” Lily said coolly. James was one of the last people on earth she wanted to talk to right now, for reasons that were becoming increasingly harder to explain.

Remus sighed. “Yes, but we both know he didn’t do a very good job at it. He’s really trying to do better this year, Lily…”

But he was again cut off by Professor Slughorn, who had walked over to examine Lily’s potion.

“A perfect Draught of Peace!” he exclaimed. “Wonderful job as always, Ms. Evans, and I’ll say again, I do wish Slytherin House could have benefited from your talents.” 

“Aw, but then I wouldn’t be able to dress Morgona up as a lion for Gryffindor Quidditch matches.” Lily said. “I just don’t think she’d like a serpent costume nearly as much.”

Slughorn laughed heartily. 

Remus leaned over to Lily. “That cat is an absolute terror whenever you put her in that lion costume” he hissed. “I can’t believe you’re still allowed to take her to matches, she nearly clawed my arm off during the match against Hufflepuff last year.” 

Lily grinned. “What can I say, she’s a true lion at heart,” she said with a shrug.

“I do hope to see you at our first Slug Club meeting of the year, Lily.” Slughorn said.  “I’m hosting a little Halloween party, the night before, of course, so you don’t miss the feast. Severus, you’re invited too.” he called. “Can’t help but show off two of my best students!” He beamed over at Snape, who was looking slightly hopeful.

“Oh…of…of course Professor,” Lily said, immediately regretting her promise. The bell rang, and the rest of the class started packing up and filing out. Snape cast Lily a very knowing look and left without saying a word. Her stomach sank.

“No matter what I do I can’t escape him,” she muttered to Remus as they packed up their things. “He’s in all the same classes as I am.” They left the classroom and starting climbing up the dungeon steps towards the Great Hall.

“But you’re still going to go to Slug Club events knowing that he’s going to be there too,” Remus pointed out.

“I’ve been going since first year!” Lily hissed.  “It’s not like I can stop now, Slughorn would ask too many questions, and he’s already suspicious that Severus and I aren’t sitting together, I can tell.” 

“Alright, forget I said anything,” Remus muttered, and Lily suddenly felt awful.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you,” she sighed. “I’ve just been so stressed about coming back to school. Everything is so different this year…” she broke off, as James Potter was walking down the corridor towards them.

“Evans! Moony!” James called, waving them down.

“I just remembered, I need to be back in Gryffindor Tower to help Zahra with Charms,” Lily said quickly. “See you later!” she turned abruptly and dashed for the closest staircase. She felt like a coward for avoiding James, especially after her conversation with Remus in Potions, but stressing about Snape and in the back of her mind, her dad’s health, was almost too much. Any interaction with Potter might actually make her snap. 

* * *

 

Lily successfully managed to avoid having to talk to James Potter for the next three days by spending most of her time in either her dormitory or the library. It was helpful that her course load was heavier than it had ever been before, as it gave her an excuse to be anti-social, but she knew she couldn’t keep it up forever. Mary thought she was being ridiculous and constantly tried to convince her to just listen to James, but Lily ignored her. 

Friday was the sixth years first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Like every year, there was a new teacher, who Dumbledore had introduced as a Professor Bellator at the Welcoming Feast, but was otherwise a mystery. The sixth years amused themselves by speculating what she was like as they stood outside waiting for class to start. Lily stood in a corner with Marlene, Mary, and Zahra and tried to ignore James and Snape, who were both trying to make eye contact with her from opposite sides of the corridor. 

The door opened and everyone filed in, whispering curiously. Lily quickly chose a desk next to Marlene and faced the front, where a tall, olive skinned woman with black hair pulled into a bun stood. As soon as everyone had taken their seats, she closed the heavy classroom door with a flick of her wand. Everyone fell silent, looking at her expectantly.

“Welcome to NEWT-level Defense Against the Dark Arts,” she said. “My name is Guinevere Bellator and I am an Auror on assignment to not only protect this school from the Dark Arts, but also to teach you lot how to protect yourselves.” 

“Ooh, an actual Auror,” Marlene whispered to Lily. “This is different.”

“I know you have had a somewhat uneven course of instruction due to your multiple teachers,” Bellator continued, “so we will be working very hard to make sure that you know everything there is to know about opposing the Dark Arts, which is of the utmost importance in these dangerous times.

She strode over to the teacher’s desk and picked up a sheet of parchment. “Therefore,” she said, “you will all be assigned a very important project that will be due at the end of this term. You will select and research a NEWT-level defensive charm or spell and write a report on the history, development, theory, and uses of this spell and also demonstrate it for the class. It will be a partner project. The partners…” she had to raise her voice slightly, as the class had already started turning around to find their friends, “…are already assigned.”

Everyone groaned, but quickly fell silent when Bellator raised a threatening eyebrow. She cleared her throat and began reading off of the parchment.

“Sirius Black and Jasper Kronos,” she said, and Sirius let out a sigh of disappoint for not being put with another Marauder.

“Anjali Patil and Mary McDonald.” Mary waved to the Ravenclaw girl on the other side of the room.

“Severus Snape and—” Lily crossed her fingers under the desk, “Evan Rosier.” Lily let out a sigh of relief, and was so busy internally celebrating that she almost missed the next two names.

“James Potter and Lily Evans.”

Dammit, she thought.

* * *

 

Lily tried to escape as soon as the bell rang, but James was too quick. He caught her arm right as she was packing up her bag and smiled down at her.

“Evans. Let’s take a walk, yeah?”

Lily turned to Marlene, silently pleading for her to come save her, but Marlene simply shrugged and mouthed “good luck”.

James steered her out into the corridor and Lily finally found her voice. “Where are we going?” she squeaked out.

“Library,” James said. “So we can start working on our project AND you can tell me why you’ve been avoiding me for the past three days.”

Lily blushed. “When’s the last time you were in the library, Potter? First year?”

James smiled wryly. “Well, my ten ‘Outstanding’ OWLs beg to differ, but sure,” he said.

Lily gaped at him. “Really?”

He nodded. “Not just a dumb Quidditch star after all. Ah! Here’s a good spot.” He lead them over to a table by the window overlooking the sunny grounds. 

“I never said you were,” Lily grumbled, taking out her Defense books and a sheet of parchment. “Just an arrogant one.”

James laughed. “Touché, Evans. Now, first things first, what are you thinking for this project?”

“Hmm” Lily said, chewing her quill. “I had an idea, but it’s far beyond NEWT-level, and the history’s a bit confusing, but I think it’ll actually be really useful, especially with everything that’s going on…”

“Spit it out, Evans,” James said. “I’m not scared of a challenge.”

“Well… I was thinking that maybe we could do the Patronus Charm. 

“The Patronus Charm?”

“Yeah, you’ve heard of it, right?”

“I have, but blimey, Evans,” he shook his head. “That’s certainly not an easy topic… you do realize that we have to actually CAST the spell, right?”

“Well, if you don’t want to do it, fine,” Lily snapped. “God forbid you take on something that may actually take a bit of work. I just thought that this may be a little more interesting and more relevant than a bloody Shield Charm.” 

“Whoa, whoa whoa,” James said, holding up his hands. “I never said I didn’t want to do it, I just said it was going to be difficult. I actually think it’s a great idea.”

“You do?” Lily said, surprised. 

“Yeah.”

“Oh,” she said. “Sorry.”

“Speaking of,” said James, more seriously. “There’s a reason why I’ve been trying to track you down all week. And no, it’s not to ask you out, in case that’s why you were avoiding me.” He turned slightly pink. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for everything that happened at the end of last term.” 

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but James put his hand up to stop her. “Just let me finish, ok? I prepared a whole speech and everything.” He laughed nervously. 

“I’m really trying to turn over a new leaf this year. I know that I’ve been a complete and utter git and I never meant for you to get messed up in the whole Snape situation. I don’t know if he would have even called you that…that word…if we hadn’t been riling him up before you came over. He’s an elitist git, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stand him, but he was your friend, and I’m sorry I played a role in you losing him.”

All of this was said very fast, and James’s face was steadily reddening. Lily looked at him curiously, and she longed to say something, but it didn’t look as though James was quite finished yet. 

“And I’m sorry for asking you out then as well,” he said, and his face was very red now. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, that was the worst possible way…” he shook his head, laughing a bit. “I think any common sense I had for dealing with girls kind of flew out the window when it came to you. In any case though, I’m sorry.”

Lily looked up at him, and his hazel eyes met her green with the softest expression she had ever seen in them. An unexpected feeling of affection blossomed up inside of her, a warmth that spread throughout her body and all the way down to her toes.

“Truce?” James asked, sticking out his hand.

“Truce.” Lily shook it and smiled at him, one of the few genuine smiles she had ever given James Potter.

His answering grin was so bright that his whole face seemed to light up, and she almost laughed at how happy and relieved he looked.

“So…  the Patronus Charm…” Lily said in an attempt to get the conversation back to more comfortable waters. 

James cleared his throat and looked quickly down at his book. “Right. Yeah. Patronus Charms…” 

* * *

 

 The next few weeks found Lily in a considerably more cheerful mood. Professor Bellator had approved her and James’s project, albeit with some reservations about their chance of success, and the two were getting along better than they had their entire six years at Hogwarts. They were still far from being friends, but there was a noticeable pleasant change which had not escaped the other Gryffindors’s attention.

“You and Potter seem to be getting a long a lot better lately” Marlene observed one evening in late September.

The two girls were sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Marlene was reading the _Daily Prophet_ while Lily was struggling over a particularly nasty Arithmancy essay which she had foolishly put off until the day before it was due.

“It’s a lot easier to be pleasant to him when he’s not hexing random people for the fun of it anymore” Lily laughed. “Mulciber and Avery excepting, but I can’t really blame him for that, they’re horrible.”

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Marlene said thoughtfully. “Maybe he is starting to grow up a bit this year. At first I thought it was because he was made Quidditch Captain and he finally has a bit of responsibility, but it looks like it’s something more…”

“He did apologize for acting like a complete ass last year. Said he’s trying to turn over a new leaf” Lily said, frowning at a particularly tricky equation in her Arithmancy textbook.

Marlene looked surprised. “Did he really?” she said. “Well, I’m impressed.”

 “Yeah, maybe getting a girlfriend finally knocked some sense into him” Lily laughed.

“Maybe…” Marlene said. She was frowning as she turned the page of the _Prophet_. “But then again, we’ve all had to grow up with everything that’s going on now. Look.” She slid the _Prophet_ over to Lily’s side of the table and pointed out a tiny article at the bottom of the page.

 _Ministry officials arrived at the home of Brandon Bones, a prominent member of the Wizengamot, and his wife Emily early this morning responding to an alarm call from one of their neighbors. The Dark Mark was cast above the house, but there were no signs of a struggle and the bodies of either Mr. or Mrs. Bones could not be found. If anyone has any information about their life status or whereabouts, the Ministry is urging them to contact Bartimus Crouch as soon as possible._

“So that’s why Jane was crying at breakfast” Lily said sadly. Jane Bones, a Hufflepuff in their year, hadn’t been seen since that morning. “They were her aunt and uncle right?”

Marlene nodded.

“You would think this would be a bigger story than some tiny column squeezed in at the bottom of the second page” Lily said hotly. “I mean, really, Brandon Bones was a very important Ministry official. He’s one of the only ones who still stands up for the rights of Muggle-borns.”

“They say You-Know-Who is everywhere now” Marlene said. “We already know he’s in the Ministry, but Jack has a cousin who works at the _Prophet_ , and he says that the higher-ups are getting a lot of pressure to only print stories that fit with You-Know-Who’s pureblood agenda. I’m surprised this even made it in at all.”

Just then, there was a noise like someone nervously clearing their throat somewhere behind Lily’s right shoulder. She turned in her seat to see a first year boy nervously clutching a roll of parchment and what looked like a Transfiguration book.

“Lily Evans?” he squeaked out.

“Yes?” she said.

“Er, your name was down on the list of prefects who could help with tutoring this month…only I didn’t want to go to a library session, I..I don’t want my friends to know how bad I am at Transfiguration.” he whispered. 

“I actually really need to finish this essay—” Lily said, and the boy’s face fell.

“It’s okay, I’ll go somewhere else” he muttered, and started to turn away. 

“No, wait—” Lily said, thinking quickly. “I know someone else who can help you, and he’s actually loads better at Transfiguration than me anyways, he’s the best in the year…POTTER” she called.

James looked up from where he was sitting with Sirius across the room. “What?” he called back.

“Come over here for a second!”

Sighing, James got up and walked over. “What’s up?” he said, looking curiously at the first year boy.

“This is…” Lily looked expectantly at the first year.

“Jacob Caldwell” he mumbled.

“…Jacob Caldwell,” Lily finished. “And he needs some help with his Transfiguration homework.”

James frowned. He leaned down next to Lily and whispered “Isn’t it the prefects job to tutor younger students? Why can’t you do it?” 

“Because I am horribly behind on this Arithmancy essay, and I am also not very good at explaining Transfiguration” Lily whispered back. “Besides, didn’t you want to ‘turn over a new leaf’ this year? Now’s your chance to do that!” She slapped him encouragingly on the shoulder.

James glanced back at Jacob, who was nervously watching their conversation. “Fine. I’ll do it” he hissed. “But only because if I have to spend one more second listening to Sirius complain about how they stopped stocking his favorite hair product in Hogsmeade I’m going to kill myself. Or him.” He straightened up. “Alright, Jacob” he said brightly. “Let’s see what you can do.”

Lily smiled as they walked away, but her thoughts shifted inevitably back to Jane Bones and her aunt and uncle. She hadn’t told her parents about the war in the wizarding world in an effort to protect them, but as things became more dangerous it was only a matter of time until they were affected by this whole mess as well.  

When she first arrived at Hogwarts, Lily had naively hoped that her good grades would be enough to show everyone that she was just as valid as pureblood witches and wizards. But, as she quickly learned, people’s prejudices were nasty and only getting worse as Voldemort and his followers gained power. Brandon Bones had been one of the few voices in the Ministry brave enough to stand up to the nasty anti-Muggle born sentiments that were unfortunately becoming more and more accepted. If he and his wife really were murdered…. Lily shuddered and tried to turn back to her essay. Her beloved wizarding world had turned into a dark and dangerous place before her eyes and she was scared for what might happen next.

 ~End of Chapter 2~

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, so Chapter 2 turned out quite a bit longer than Chapter 1! Hope you are all still enjoying the story, things will really start to pick up now. I'll try to be back with the third chapter next weekend depending on how much editing I get done.
> 
> Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment/kudos :)
> 
> ~halosun


	3. Chapter 3

The days grew steadily colder and rainier as they moved into October. As the weather got worse, so did the news from the outside world. There were so many reports of disappearances that Dumbledore instructed the prefects to start regular nighttime patrols to protect the students and keep an eye out for any potential Death Eater activity. Lily was not too happy about this, because along with her additional prefect duties, she was taking a full schedule of NEWT level classes, the result of which meant that she was getting very little sleep.

She was also dreading Slughorn’s Halloween party. She had sent applications to multiple potion internship programs that summer, internships that were crucial to helping her achieve her ambition of becoming a Healer, but had received absolutely zero responses. Lily knew that it was important to stay on Slughorn’s good side, as he had many important potions connections that would likely be at the party. But she also knew that Severus would take the opportunity to confront her again, and it would be much harder to escape him in Slughorn’s crowded office. Thankfully, Zahra, who was a fellow member of the Slug Club, had (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to come with her and be Lily’s buffer against Snape.

Lily woke up the morning of October 20th by a large pillow hitting her across the face.

“Gerroff me” she mumbled, drawing her covers up over her head. The pillow hit her again.

“Lily Evans you better get up right now before this bloody bird poops on my bed” came a loud, angry voice from above her.

Groaning, Lily sat up reluctantly and squinted at Mary, who was standing over her and pointing furiously at a barn owl that was perched on her headboard, hooting softly.

“Sorry” Lily muttered. “I borrowed her from Jack McKinnon, I needed to send a letter to my parents, they must have sent back a response.” She reached for the owl, who stuck out her leg and after Lily had untied the roll of parchment, flew out through the open window and back over the rainy grounds. Mary strode after her and shut it.

“I don’t know how you and Zahra slept through it,” Mary said, shaking her head. “She was pecking the window for at least ten minutes, she woke both me and Marlene up. Oh yeah… HEY MARLENE!” she shouted.

“WHAT” came a voice from the bathroom.

“TELL JACK HE’S NOT ALLOWED TO LEND LILY HIS OWL ANYMORE.”

Lily laughed. “I was out patrolling until 2:00 AM last night, so I could have slept through a stampede of hippogriffs, but I don’t know what Zahra’s excuse is.”

“I’m sick” came a hoarse voice from Zahra’s bed. Lily and Marlene looked over to see her head emerge from beneath a thick pile of blankets.

“What do you mean you’re sick, you can’t be sick!” Lily cried. “You need to come to Slughorn’s party with me tonight! You’re my only line of defense against Severus!” 

“I’m really sorry, Lily” Zahra said, sitting up in her bed with some difficulty. “But I hardly have any voice left and I feel like absolute shit, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do anything today, much less go to a party.”

Lily’s impending feelings of dread suddenly became the early flutters of a full-on panic. “It’s okay,” she squeaked, her mind racing. “I’ll…think of something else.”

Dazedly, she climbed out of bed, pulled on a dressing gown over her pajamas and headed down to the common room to think over what she was going to do, and also to hopefully read her parent’s letter in peace.

It was almost 9:00 AM, but since it was a Saturday, the common room was practically empty, and Lily had no trouble getting her favorite cushy red chair by the fireplace. She collapsed into it and unrolled the letter.

“ _Darling Lily_ ”, it said. 

_Hope you are doing well; it’s been a quiet couple of days at the house. The weather’s been unseasonably cold lately, it feels like we skipped right over fall and went straight from summer to winter! I’m glad we still have a few colorful trees left though, your father’s oak tree in the front yard still has some beautiful red leaves._

_Dad is doing well, or as well as can be expected. The doctors said that the first round of chemotherapy went very well, but they want to up the dosage for the second round. He insists that he feels fine and that he misses you very much, but he has had to stop working at the factory. He simply gets too tired too quickly nowadays, and the doctors said that the second round of chemo will only make it worse. Petunia and Vernon (bless them!) are going to come by when they can to help out with the chores and groceries and such, which will also hopefully prevent me and your father from becoming too sick of each other now that we’re trapped in the same house all day. In spite of all this craziness we are feeling cautiously optimistic for his recovery, and I promise I will keep you updated if anything changes._

_Looking forward to seeing you at Christmas,_

_Mum xx_

Lily sighed, releasing the breath she didn’t even realize she was holding until that moment. She had asked her mum to update her on her dad’s condition in her last letter, and while the news wasn’t great, it certainly wasn’t one of the many fears that tended to keep her awake at night either. She was more thankful than ever that she had taken that coffee shop job over the summer to give her parents some extra money, as it looked like they would be needing it soon now that Dad was out of a job. The news about Petunia and her boyfriend was also a welcome surprise, even if Vernon was a horribly boring and unpleasant person (at least in Lily’s opinion, her parents, for whatever reason, loved him). Satisfied, she was just beginning to fold up the letter and head to breakfast when she heard whistling. 

James Potter was climbing through the portrait hole clutching his beloved Silver Arrow broomstick. His hair was, if possible, even more disheveled than usual, giving it a natural windswept look that was annoyingly attractive, even with his sweaty, muddy practice robes. He noticed Lily and waved cheerily at her, then, much to her chagrin, walked over and collapsed in the chair right next to hers.

“Morning, Evans!” he said brightly. “What are you doing up so early on this fine Saturday morning?”

Lily looked out the window, where the steady drizzle from earlier had turned into a torrential downpour. “I’ll tell you what I’m _not_ doing” she said. “Is playing Quidditch. You lot are crazy.”

“Neither rain, nor mist, nor muddy fields can stop the noble game of Quidditch” James said, puffing his chest out importantly. “Besides, we have a match coming up and we needed to practice our strategy.” 

Lily glanced at his muddy robes and soaked trainers. “Does your strategy involve the Chasers diving headfirst into a mud puddle?” she asked. “Because if so, it looks like you’re doing a great job.

James grinned. “Touché, Evans,” he said. “Remus said I wasn’t allowed into the Great Hall until I took a shower.”

Lily wrinkled her nose. “I’d have to agree with him” she said dryly. “You stink.” 

James ignored her. “Speaking of Remus,” he said. “He wanted me to find out what you were going to do about that Halloween party that Slughorn is apparently hosting tonight. I don’t know if Mooney wants an invite to join your little Slug Club, or what, but I thought I’d ask.”

Lily sighed. “Yeah, I told him about my predicament.” she said. “I thought I had it all figured out until this morning.” James looked confused, so she elaborated. “Zahra promised she’d go with me to try keep me from being cornered by Sev— _Snape_ ” she explained. “But now she’s sick and I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

 A muscle had jumped in James’s jaw at the mention of Snape’s first name. “Can’t you just not go?” he said grumpily.

Lily looked at him. “Not everyone has a famous potioneer for a father, Potter,” she said. “Some of us need to find internships the old fashion way.”

 “What’s that, kissing ass?” James muttered. Lily raised her eyebrows threateningly and he winced.  “Sorry. Working on that.” he said.

“If you have any actual suggestions about what to do, I’ll be glad to hear them,” Lily said icily. “Otherwise, could you go take that shower now? You’re starting to drip mud onto the carpet.” 

James groaned dramatically as he got to his feet. “Alright, alright. Go to your party. I’ll think of something.” He began to trudge up the stairs to the boy’s dormitories. 

Lily watched him go in disbelief. “What does that _mean_ , Potter?” she called after him.

But James only looked over his shoulder and winked at her. “You’ll just have to find out,” he said.

* * *

 

At 8:00 PM that night, Lily found herself standing reluctantly in front of Slughorn’s office door. She consoled herself with the fact that James had promised “something” to save her from having to deal with Severus, which, knowing James Potter, most likely meant some sort of prank. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Slughorn had magically enlarged his office so that it now held twice as many people as normal, and yet, the room was still packed with a mix of current and former Hogwarts students, all of them hand-selected favorites of the Potions Master. The walls were draped with orange and purple banners for Halloween, and bunches of twinkling fairy lights were enchanted to hang suspended in the air over the guests’ heads. She scanned the room and her stomach fell to see Snape standing only a few feet away with a drink in his hand. The two of them met eyes, but before either of them could react, Lily heard her name being called.

“Lily!” Slughorn said, waving her over to where he was standing with a portly wizard with an impressive handlebar mustache that rivaled Slughorn’s own. Feeling immensely relieved, Lily rushed over to them.

“So glad you could make it,” Slughorn told her, “there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” He gestured to the mustached man next to him. “This is Delwyn Fawley, he’s an old student and an absolutely fabulous potioneer, he’s invented several different healing potions for St. Mungo’s, and he was just appointed director of the Potion’s Association!”

Lily stuck out her hand with a polite smile. “Nice to meet you,” she said.

“Lily is one of my best students,” Slughon went on. “Just as you were in your day, eh Delwyn? Now, I have to go make the rounds, but I thought you all could chat about healing potions and whatnot, Delwyn has a nice little opening for an internship this summer.” He winked at Lily. 

“Good man, Slughorn,” Fawley said fondly as Slughorn waddled away. “He helped me get my first job out of Hogwarts in the potions division of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes back in ‘57.” 

Lily hummed in agreement. “Could you tell me a bit more about that internship that Slughorn mentioned?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, of course!” Fawley said. He pulled a quill and a spare scrape of parchment out of his jacket pocket and started jotting down Lily’s name. “What did you say your surname was?” he asked.

 “Er… it’s Evans. Lily Evans.” Lily said reluctantly.

“Evans?” Fawley frowned. “I’m not familiar with that surname…when did your parents go to Hogwarts?”

“Actually they didn’t, seeing as they’re both Muggles.” Lily said, her heart dropping as she already knew what was likely to come next. She turned to Slughorn for help, but he was already on the other side of the room taking to a group of Ravenclaw students.

“Really?” Fawley had suddenly stashed away the slip of parchment. “Well, if you’ll excuse me Miss Evans, I see a colleague over there that I must speak to…” He walked away so fast it was almost as if he disapperated.

She should have known this would happen, Lily thought. Hardly anyone was hiring Muggleborns anymore, much less accepting them into internships with prestigious Potions organizations, but she had thought that maybe with Slughorn vouching for her at these parties she could still get a good contact… she noticed Severus walking towards her again and ducked behind a tall, leafy looking potted plant to avoid him when when she spotted—Potter. 

He was standing by the drinks table, firewhiskey in hand, and was talking animatedly with his girlfriend Marguerite, who was looking very pretty with her long red-brown hair braided up into a knot on the back of her head. Lily strode over to them. 

“Potter!” she whispered furiously. “What the hell are you doing here, you weren’t invited!”

“Oh hello to you too Evans,” James said casually. “It’s true, I didn’t quite get an invitation exactly, but Marguerite did! I’m here as her date.” He gestured, beaming at his girlfriend, who smiled shyly at Lily. 

“Slughorn invited me last class after I was the only one to get an “O” on our essays on Strengthening Solutions,” she said with slight French accent, “but I suspect it had more to do with the fact that my dad just bought the Tutshill Tornados. He wants season tickets.”

James rolled his eyes. “Merlin knows why, they’re massively overrated…but I don’t think you two have actually met yet!” he said, looking at Marguerite and Lily.

“Oh, yes, I’m sorry, Lily Evans.” Lily said, flustered, and stuck out her hand. Marguerite took it with a smile.

“Marguerite Castille. It’s nice to finally meet, I’ve heard a lot about you” she said.

“Really?” Lily said, glaring at James, who was trying hard to look innocent. “Don’t believe anything he tells you, they’re all lies” she warned Marguerite. Marguerite laughed, a bright tinkling sound, and Lily had to smile in spite of herself.

“So, are you going to tell me why you’re really here?” Lily asked James. “I know you think these things are stupid.” She was still a bit upset with him for his ‘kissing ass’ comment from earlier.

James grinned. “They are stupid. But I couldn’t leave you alone at a Slug Club party with only Snivellus for company, Evans. I believe in some countries that’s legally a form of torture. Besides, how else could I execute my plan?”

“Does your plan involve someone or something blowing up?” Lily said dryly.

“Oh, we saved the best for Snape, but don’t worry, we fully intend on causing a general havoc and mayhem too. Wouldn’t be a Marauder’s prank if we didn’t.” James winked.

“Has Snape been bothering you at all?” Marguerite asked, looking concerned.

“No, but I just got here, and I’ve been avoiding him mostly.” Lily said, gesturing to her leafy plant hideout. “Though I did get outright rejected from applying to a potions internship because I’m a Muggleborn.” She sighed.

James suddenly looked angry. “Who said that?” he demanded.

“Delwyn Falwey. New director of the Potions Association” Lily said, pointing him out from where he was now standing talking to a group of Slytherins, including Snape. “He seemed alright until he asked who my parents were. He practically ran away from me when I told him they were Muggles.”

“What a git.” James said softly, glaring at him. 

“C’mon James, we should get everything set up” Marguerite said, pulling on his arm to tear his gaze from Fawley.

“Right.” He shook his head. “You stay here,” he told Lily. “You only need to avoid Snape for about ten more minutes, and then we’ll be rid of him and you can network or whatever it is you normally do at these things besides hiding behind houseplants.” 

Lily and Marguerite both gave him a very similar look.

James grinned. “Alright? Everyone got it?” They nodded. “Aaaaaand break!” He clapped his hands together just like he did at the end of every Quidditch huddle and the three of them scattered in different directions. 

Lily hovered by the drinks table for a few minutes, but the crowd had grown thicker, and it was harder to see just where James and Marguerite had gone off to. Suddenly, Lily felt someone tap her shoulder. She spun around and her stomach dropped to see none other than Snape himself, looking desperate but determined. 

“Lily…” he started. 

“How many times, Severus” Lily snapped. “How many times do I have to say that I don’t want to talk to you before you _leave me alone_.”

“Lily…just, listen for a second. I have to tell you something.” He set his drink down on the table. “The world is becoming a dangerous place for people like you and it’s only going to become more so. You need someone who can protect you. Let me help. I can keep you safe from—“ 

“—from people like your little Death Eater friends?” Lily spat. “The same ones that are making everything dangerous for people like me in the first place? What the hell makes you think I’d trust you to to protect me from the very same people you’re in line with yourself!”

A hand was suddenly on her shoulder, and Lily looked up to see James glaring at Snape. “This slimeball bothering you, Evans?” he said.

“Stay out of this, Potter” Snape hissed, and his whole demeanor changed. He was suddenly looking murderous, and his black eyes glittered menacingly. 

Lily noticed Marguerite slip behind Snape to the drinks table, pretending as though she was going to pour herself a cup of pumpkin juice. She took out her wand and muttered a few words over Snape’s cup, who was currently too busy glaring at James to notice. 

“How about you listen to Evans for once and leave?” James said. “She doesn’t want you here. C’mon” he muttered to her. 

“Stop trying to talk to me, Severus.” Lily said. “I don’t need your _protection_.” She turned around and her and James began walking away.

“Any second…” James muttered. 

“Lily! Wait…” There was a horrible retching sound, and Lily spun around to see Snape holding his throat, looking confused. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a sort of strained gurgle.

James grinned. “Cat got your tongue, Snivellus?” he said gleefully.

Snape shot him a look of deepest loathing and swept past them, straight out the door of Slughorn’s office. Marguerite ran up to Lily and James, grinning. 

“What did you do?” Lily asked, astonished. 

“Modified Tongue-Tying Curse.” James said proudly. “I distracted him while Marguerite cursed his firewhisky, I thought he would finish it before he tried a last-ditch effort to get you back, and I was right!” 

“And he can’t blame either of you for it either,” Marguerite added. “Your backs were turned when it happened and he knows you couldn’t have tampered with his drink; you were too far away.”

Lily grinned. “That was genius, thank you, both of you.” she said to James and Marguerite.

James shrugged. “It was nothing. Go socialize with your stuffy Ministry officials, the real fun will be a bit later.” He winked. “Now, maybe it’s my eyes playing tricks on me but I think I just saw Hector Hastings talking to Slughorn over there.”

Marguerite gasped. “The Wimbourne Wasps seeker?” she shrieked. “James, we HAVE to go say hello.” She grabbed his hand and started to drag him over. James was chuckling and complaining about how the Wasps weren’t even THAT good, at least not compared to Puddlemere United, but he let Marguerite lead him over nonetheless.

The next half hour actually wasn’t too bad, Lily thought. Slughorn introduced her to a few more of his former students, and she even got to speak briefly with Hector Hastings, the Wimbourne Wasps seeker, though she thought he was a bit full of himself.  He kept going on about spectacular catches he’d made, and Lily was inexplicitly reminded of a fifth-year James Potter. She had just finished chatting with the current owner of Honeydukes when she overheard a group of well-dressed wizards clustered together by the fireplace. Somehow James had ended up among them, and he was arguing passionately with one of the wizards.

“It’s simply a matter of security!” the wizard said. “We have taken great measures to guard our secrets from Muggles for thousands of years, and letting Muggleborns into Hogwarts puts us more at risk. They go home to their Muggle families and Muggle communities and who knows what they’re telling them about us really, they could very well be working to bring us down!”

“They haven’t tried to ‘bring us down’ for hundreds of years,” James said angrily. “What makes you think they would now? And you would rather have them exhibit random bursts of magic than learn to control it at Hogwarts? _That_ doesn’t sound very safe or secret, wouldn’t you agree?” 

“Well, studies have shown that Muggle-borns are not nearly as adept at magic as purebloods, so I hardly think it would be as much as a problem as you’re making it out to be…”

“And what studies would those be?” Lily said loudly, entering the circle. James grinned at her.

The man looked surprised, but turned to Lily all the same. “My dear, it’s simply fact” he said. “All of the most powerful witches and wizards of our age are pureblood. Look around you, there are no Muggle-born Hogwarts teachers, and I can’t name a single top Ministry official with Muggle parents…”

“That’s because you won’t hire the ones with Muggle parents!” Lily yelled. Several people in the vicinity gave her scandalized looks, but she took no notice of them. “The only reason Muggle-borns have disadvantages is because people like _you_ create them.”

 “C’mon” James said quickly to Lily as the wizard opened his mouth to argue. He motioned for her to follow him to a safer place. Lily’s ears were ringing, and she crossed her arms defensively. James looked at her and she found that she couldn’t look him in the eye, instead staring at the collar on his robes.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have gotten involved but I couldn’t just stand there as they started talking about how Muggle-borns were a ‘danger’ to wizarding society, it’s ridiculous!” 

“You don’t have to tell me, Potter.” Lily sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly. “I need a drink.” 

“Here,” James said, handing her a bottle of butterbeer. “Listen, I thought I saw someone here that you might like to meet, he’s good friends with my dad… hey Devon!” he called.

A young bearded wizard wearing dark blue robes looked up from his conversation with a Welsh witch and, beaming, walked over to James.

“James!” He said in a warm, cheerful voice. “What a lovely surprise! Great to see you, lad, your dad’s been saying you’ve made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain this year! Congratulations!” he shook James’s hand enthusiastically. 

“I’d like you to meet Lily Evans,” James told him. “Evans, this is Rodrick Devon, he’s the head Healer at St. Mungos.”

Lily had to try very hard to prevent her jaw from dropping. “Really?” she asked, a little starstuck.

“Youngest one in fifty years” Devon said, winking at her.

“Evans is one of the best students in our year,” James continued, “and she’s bloody brilliant at Potions, especially healing Potions.”

“Ahhh” Devon said, shaking Lily’s hand with a broad smile. “Got any ambitions of being a Healer, Miss Evans?” he asked her.

“Er…yes, actually.” Lily said, wondering just how James knew that.

“Well, I’d love to put in a good word for you when and if you decide to apply to St. Mungos” Devon said. “Any friend of James’s is a friend of mine. In fact, I think we may have an internship program this summer that may interest you, it’s part of our Potions research division…” 

“That sounds wonderful!” Lily said, hardly believing her ears. “How do I apply?”

“Well, you’ll need to send in a transcript with your OWL results and your first year of NEWT classes, an essay about your career aspirations, and two letters of recommendation.” Devon said, counting off on his fingers. Lily nodded excitedly.

“And that should be it if you get it all in by April 1st! Although…” Devon’s smile suddenly faded. “With the new rules…you are pureblood, aren’t you?” he asked

“I hardly think that matters” James said sharply. “Why do you care?”

“Well see… _I_ don’t per say…but we’ve been getting a lot of pressure from the hospital board about our hiring process. Patients seem to want to make sure that the Healers taking care of them aren’t, well, er….”

“Going to defile them with their dirty blood?” Lily said quietly. Her hands had started to shake, and her vision was blurring.

Devon turned bright red. “It’s only a temporary policy, Miss Evans, though regrettable.” 

“If it’s so regrettable, then why won’t you change it!” James yelled.

Devon started to sputter out a response, but Lily heard none of it. Spinning on her heel, she pushed through the crowds of people for the office door. She ran halfway up the dungeon stairs and collapsed on a stone step with a sob. She wasn’t sure why this interaction, of all of the ones of the night, was the one that finally broke her. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Devon had seemed smart, and genuinely kind, but in the end he was just as bad as the stuffy old wizards who were only too glad that they were now able to voice their prejudices without restraint.

“Lily?” James’s voice was calling from the bottom of the staircase, and Lily angrily wiped her tears away before she responded.

“Up here.” She croaked. 

James noticed her and began climbing up the stairs to her level. Lily was very glad that he had the good sense to sit a distance away from her, and for once in his life it seemed like he was a loss for words. There was a long silence where neither of them could look the other in the eye. After a while, Lily cleared her throat awkwardly and began to speak.

“I decided that I wanted to be a doctor when I was five years old,” she said softly. “I’ve wanted to be a Healer since I was ten, ever since I learned what they were. And when I came to Hogwarts, I thought that if I just worked hard and took all the right charms and potions classes, it wouldn’t matter that I was Muggle-born, that I didn’t have any family connections or any of the other advantages of pure-blood Healers.”

She sighed. “But then—“

“—then Voldemort happened.” James finished for her.

He was glaring fiercely at the stone step in front of him, looking angrier than she had ever seen him in their seven years at school together.

“How did you know that I wanted to be a Healer?” she asked him tentatively.

James shrugged. “I overheard McGonagall talking about it with you in the Great Hall when she was passing out schedules. You’re right, you’re made for that job. You should have gotten that internship.” He sighed. “Now I have to tell Dad that one of his friends is a cowardly old hack.”

Lily smiled sadly. “Maybe it’s better this way. Their lime green robes would have clashed horribly with my hair anyways,” she said, and James let out a small chuckle. 

“Merlin, I’m sorry Lily,” he said, passing a hand in front of his face. “I always seem to make everything worse for you, don’t I?”

“No you don’t,” Lily said quickly. James gave her a disbelieving look. “I’m serious.” Lily continued. “I know we haven’t exactly gotten along in the past, but you’ve always had your heart in the right place, and you’re really so much better this year in so many ways, I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Your leaf-turning, or whatever you want to call it, actually seems to be working.” 

James laughed. “Why are you being so nice to me, Lily?” he asked, looking at her with an odd expression on his face.

Lily smiled. “I don’t know, _James_ ,” she said mischievously. “Why have you suddenly abandoned calling me by my surname?” 

To her surprise, James turned pink. “I only started calling you ‘Evans’ because you refused to call me anything other than ‘Potter’” he muttered. “But it seemed a little insensitive to call you that now given the…the…”

“—crying on the dungeon steps after yelling at my dream employer who turned out to be a blood-purist?” Lily said, stopping his sputtering.

James winced. “Well, yeah…” he said.

“I suppose in the interest of our truce and the fact that you helped me out with Snape tonight, I should start calling you by your given name too,” Lily said thoughtfully. “Although ‘James’ is certainly a lot less satisfying than ‘Potter’ to spit out in a vengeful tirade.”

“Ah, see, but it does go rather well with an exasperated sigh,” James cut in. “Just ask Remus or my mother.” He grinned at her, and Lily couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Lily?” he said, sticking out his hand much like he did when he called for a truce that day in the library. 

“James.” Lily replied, taking his hand and shaking it with a smile.

“James? Lily?” Marguerite’s voice called from the bottom of the stairs. “It’s ready,” she told James. James scrambled to his feet, pulling Lily up with him.

“What’s ready?” Lily asked, confused.

James rubbed his hands together excitedly. “The grand finale,” he told her. “C’mon.”

* * *

 

“I really don’t think I should go back in there.” Lily said as she reluctantly followed James back down the dungeon steps.

“You won’t have to.” James said brightly. “Just watch.” He pulled the two girls behind a large suit of armor strategically placed with a full view of Slughorn’s office. 

“So,” James eagerly explained to Lily. “Originally the plan was to just chuck a few dungbombs, cause some general havoc, the usual you know,” Lily rolled her eyes. “But the plan changed and we decided to go with a subtler approach and concentrate on three separate targets.” 

“Who?” Lily asked.

James grinned at her. “Delwyn Fawley, Rodrick Devon, and that group of barmy old codgers that we had the pleasure of talking with earlier.”

A smile slowly broke out over Lily’s face. “What exactly did you do?” she said.

“Charmed the ice cubes on the drinks table to explode as soon as they melted completely in someone’s drink” James said.

“—and I very generously offered to get all of them refills about ten minutes ago.” Marguerite added. 

“Which means—“ James said, checking his watch. “We should be seeing results any second now.”

They waited, watching closely, and just as James said, about thirty seconds later there was a collective BOOM followed by shrieks from the various guests. The glasses in question had indeed exploded and splattered everyone in the vicinity with their contents. Hester Hastings, who Devon had been attempting to chat up only moments before, was now positively dripping with firewhiskey and grumpily waving off Devon’s sputtered apologies.

Lily and Marguerite dissolved into giggles at the sight. James was looking very pleased with himself.

“C’mon” he muttered after the girls had managed to get a handle on themselves. “Slughorn’s going to figure out who did it any second now, we need to go.” 

They slipped out the door and ran up the dungeon steps to the Great Hall. Lily was still chuckling.

“Thank you, guys.” She said very sincerely to James and Marguerite when they were a safe distance away at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.

 “I hope the night wasn’t a total disaster,” James said. “In spite of all that bullshit you had to deal with.” 

“No, no, you guys made it all worth it to see those gits get what they deserved.” Lily said grinning. “Thank you. Especially you,” she said turning to Marguerite. “I can’t believe you would do all that for someone you’ve just met.”

Marguerite smiled. “Well, I’m always down for a good prank. But James thinks very highly of you, and I trust his judgment. The friends he chooses tend to turn out to be good ones.”

Lily was shocked, but pleased. She looked over at James to find him staring very intently at his feet. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked up at his girlfriend. 

“I think we should get going. I’m going to walk her back to the Ravenclaw Tower,” he told Lily, “So we’ll say goodnight.”

“Have a good night _James_.” Lily said. “And you, Marguerite.” 

A wide smile broke out over James’s face at her use of his first name.

“See you tomorrow, _Lily_ ” he said pointedly. Marguerite said goodnight as well, and the two of them turned and began to walk hand and hand up the right side staircase. Lily watched them go for a few seconds, then turned herself towards the left side staircase that would take her up to Gryffindor Tower. It had been a difficult night to say the least, but strangely, it had also felt like a new beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well....it's been a while. Sorry about the lack of updates, school and life kind of caught up with me! My life is about to get super busy again, so I'm going to try to post another chapter by the end of the week since it's already written and just need to be edited. And it's a good one, I promise!
> 
> Thanks for sticking with the story, and as always, kudos and comments are highly appreciated :)
> 
> ~halosun


	4. Chapter 4

The other Gryffindor sixth year girls noticed a discernible positive change in Lily’s mood over the next few weeks. Snape had finally stopped trying to bother her (she suspected she had James’s Halloween prank to thank for that), and her and James’s Defense Against the Dark Arts project was coming along rather well.

“I forgot to ask,” Mary said one morning at breakfast as Snape passed by the Gryffindor table without so much as a glance in Lily’s direction. “How was Slughorn’s Halloween party? Somehow you’ve finally managed get Snape to bugger off.”

“That was all because of James and Marguerite." Lily said. "I probably would have left in the first ten minutes if it weren’t for them.”

Mary very nearly spat out her pumpkin juice. “You actually met Potter’s mystery French girl?! And hold on, since when has he been _James_?”

Lily rolled her eyes as she reached past her to grab a piece of toast. “She’s not some ‘mystery French girl’, she’s actually quite nice.”

“Don’t avoid the question, Lily” Mary said. “He’s been ‘that toerag Potter’ since first year, what changed? Did something happen between you two?”

“No!” Lily said quickly. “Ew! Not in a million years.” Mary looked unconvinced. “We just decided that if we were going to honor our truce it would probably help if we didn’t, you know, talk to each other like sworn enemies.”

Mary shook her head. “You-Know-Who in the Ministry, aurors on school grounds, and Lily Evans calling James Potter by his first name. The world really has turned upside down,” she said, mock-seriously.

Lily threw a piece of toast at Mary’s head rather than respond. 

“Easy there, Evans,” Sirius Black’s voice said. He had just arrived at the Gryffindor table along with James and Peter. “Someone may think you’re trying to start a food fight.”

“No I’m not,” Lily said quickly at the excited grins on Peter's face. “We still good for Thursday?” she asked James.

“Oooooh” said Sirius excitedly, while Mary wolf whistled. “To do what?”

“To practice casting the patronus charm for our project,” Lily said, glaring at Sirius. “Don’t get too excited.”

James grinned. “Yeah, that works. I’m sure we can find an empty classroom during lunch,” he told her.

“Sounds romantic” Mary whispered teasingly.

“Keep it up and the next thing I throw at you will be that pitcher of pumpkin juice,” Lily muttered back.

She looked up and smiled at James. “Sounds great,” she said.

* * *

That Thursday, Lily met up with James in an empty classroom on the fourth floor to try to attempt casting the patronus charm, as they decided that practicing in the common room would draw too much unwanted attention. This was a good call, as Lily was having enough trouble already without all of Gryffindor house to watch her struggle.  

“You’ve got to think of a _happy_ memory, Lily,” James called from his perch on the teacher’s desk after Lily had produced only a wispy trail of silver smoke for the fourth time that day. Even he had managed to produce an incorporal patronus already in the form of a shimmering cloud of silvery-white smoke.

“Real helpful advice, James.” Lily said sarcastically. “What do you thinking I’ve been doing this whole time?”

At first she had tried thinking about when Severus told her she was a witch and how excited she was, but it wasn’t enough, as the memory was now tainted with her complicated feelings towards Severus himself. She had then tried to picture the magic of the Great Hall her first night at Hogwarts, and the pride she had felt at being sorted into Gryffindor. But still, nothing.

“What form do you think your Patronus is going to take?” Lily asked him in an effort to change the subject.

James grinned. “I have an idea,” he said mischievously. “But it’s just a guess.” 

“If I were an animagus I would know,” Lily grumbled. “Didn’t we read that it’s like a 90% chance that a wizard’s animagus form will take the same form as their patronus?” 

James laughed. “It’s a lot harder to become an animagus than it is to cast a Patronus, Lily.” He said. 

“How do you know that?” Lily asked him.

“I’ve, er, read a lot about animagi for Transfiguration,” James said. His mouth was twitching, but Lily ignored him in favor of glaring at her wand in frustration.

“Well, in any case, it’s not looking like I’ll find out what my patronus is anytime soon” she said. “If I can’t even make one in a classroom, how the hell am I going to when faced with an actual Dementor?

James frowned, and shuffled through some of their notes on the theory of the charm. “It says here that you have to stay completely focused on the memory and the intent of casting the charm,” he said. “You can’t be distracted or thinking about anything else. Do you have something on your mind?” he asked her.

Lily suddenly realized what the problem was. She had gotten another letter from home that morning. Her dad was worse; much worse than the last time she had heard from her parents. It had been in the back of her mind all day, even though she tried her hardest to not think of it.

James was watching the look on her face with eyes full of concern.

 “Do you want to talk about it?” he said gently. Lily gave a surprised start. “I mean,” he said quickly “You don’t have to… but I always find that if I have something on my mind, talking it out with someone is the best way to get me to stop stressing over it.”

Lily’s first instinct was to say no, but then she remembered their conversation on the dungeon steps outside Slughorn’s office the night before Halloween. James was not the same person he was fifth year.

Slowly, she nodded and walked over to the desk and sat down next to him. James was silent, looking at her but waiting for her to speak.

“The only other person I’ve told is Mary,” Lily said. “So you have to swear you won’t tell _anyone_. Not Sirius, not Remus or Peter, no one. If you do, I’ll hex you into the next county.”

“I won’t” James said fiercely.

Lily took a deep breath. “My dad has cancer,” she said. James looked confused, so she added, “It’s a lot more common in Muggles than it is in wizards I think, but it still came as a bit of a shock.

“He was diagnosed over the summer,” Lily continued. “And I already felt bad for leaving him to come back to school, and Mum has been sending me updates on his treatment program, but it seems like he’s just been getting worse and worse. I got a letter just this morning from Mum, and apparently Dad is so sick that he can hardly get out of bed now, and the doctors are really worried. She said to wait to the Christmas holidays to come home, as it’s not likely that he’ll change much till then, but it’s just…hard….to be halfway across the country and not able to do anything about it.”

“I’m sorry, Lily.” James muttered, “That’s awful.”

Lily could only nod sadly in agreement.

“A few years ago,” James said. “My parents came down with a case of dragon pox. They’re fine now,” he said, as Lily looked up at him with alarm, “But I know how you feel. When they were sick, they told me not to worry about them, to just think about school and Quidditch, but it never really seemed to work.” He chuckled. “It’s like…you know when someone says, try to think of anything but a herd of hippogriffs, and what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?”

“A herd of hippogriffs” Lily smiled wryly.

“Right,” James continued. “So, what if you stop trying so hard to not think of your dad and his cancer, but let yourself think of the happy memories with him instead? Feel free to ignore everything I just said…” he added quickly, as Lily raised her eyebrows curiously. “…but it’s just a suggestion.”

“No, no, it was a good suggestion,” Lily said, pleasantly surprised by his response. “I had just never thought of that before.” 

 She stood up up from the desk, determined to try the spell one last time. She closed her eyes and thought of her dad teaching her how to fish in the creek behind their house in Cokesworth, last summer before they got the cancer news. 

“Expecto Patronum,” she whispered.

 A thick cloud of brilliant white smoke billowed out from her wand. Lily was so shocked she almost dropped her wand.

There was a loud whoop from behind her and Lily turned back to the desk to see James grinning ear to ear.

“You did it!” he cheered.

“It wasn’t a fully corpeal patronus, though,” Lily said, though she was grinning just as widely as he was.

James waved his hand dismissively. “We still have a few weeks left,” he said. “We’ll get there,” he said with such conviction that Lily couldn’t help but believe him.

Her stomach gave a loud rumble, and she realized at that moment that they had spent almost the entire lunch period practicing. “I think we’ve earned ourselves a break” she decided. “If we hurry we can grab the few last slices of that shepard’s pie I saw earlier.” 

James sighed with relief. He gathered up all their project notes and hoisted his bag over his shoulder. “I’m so glad you said that,” he said. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’m _famished_.”

* * *

 The next weekend was the date of the last Hogsmeade trip before the Christmas holidays. Lily was planning on skipping it, as she had still yet to produce a fully corpeal Patronus (and her and James’s presentation was that Monday), but Mary managed to convince her it would do her good to do something else other than sit in Gryffindor Tower all day and worry about her father. So, that Saturday Lily, Mary, Marlene, and Zahra set off wrapped in several layers of scarves, jackets, and hats into the village. 

Snow was falling lightly, gathering on the roofs and window frames of the wooden houses, making Hogsmeade look almost like a life-sized gingerbread village, Lily thought. Fairy lights were strung up along the rows of houses and all the storefronts had large green wreaths full of magical twinkling and spinning Christmas baubles. The girls stopped in Honeydukes first, where Lily bought two large bags full of Bertie Botts, chocolate frogs, and the like for her parents’ Christmas presents, and then the post office, where she bought Petunia a very _normal_ set of stationary with her sister’s initials monogrammed across the top.

“Shall we go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink?” Marlene asked as they stepped outside again. The wind had picked up, and they were all shivering as they crowded by the post office door. “I told Jack I’d meet him there and I don’t really fancy walking around outside for much longer, it’s freezing.”

The other three girls nodded in agreement, so teeth chattering, they trudged through the snow to the pub. 

It was very crowded inside, as apparently everyone else had the same idea to come escape the cold and the wind by drinking a hot butterbeer too. They inched through the crowd, craning their necks in search of Jack McKinnon.

“Lily!” Lily heard, and turned to see James waving at her from a large corner booth where he was seated with Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Marlene’s boyfriend Jack.

He motioned for them to come join them. Mary and Zahra looked anxiously at Lily, but she only shrugged.

“It’s fine,” she muttered. “It’s not likely we’ll be able to find another table in here anyways.”

They walked over and were enthusiastically greeted by the Gryffindor boys. Jack greeted his girlfriend with a kiss on the cheek and offered to get the all newcomers drinks. The girls thanked him and sat down gratefully.

“Gee, Evans, is it cold outside?” Sirius Black grinned as Lily slid into the booth next to him. “Your nose is almost the same color as your hair.”

“Ha. Ha.” Lily said, rolling her eyes at Remus, who smiled at her in response. 

“How are you, Lily?” he asked.

“I’m doing alright,” Lily said. “All these patrols Dumbledore has us doing are kicking my ass, but otherwise, things are ok. What about you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“Yeah, I’ve been, er, sick,” Remus said uncomfortably, looking down at his mug of butterbeer. “But I’m doing much better now, don’t worry.”

Sensing his desire to change the subject, Lily turned to James.

“How’s Marguerite doing?” she asked.

“Yes, please tell us all about your mysterious French girlfriend, James, we’ve been dying to know, and Lily doesn’t tell us _anything_ ” Mary pouted.

James laughed. “I don’t really know what you want me to say, she’s not exactly _mysterious…”_ he turned back to Lily. “But she’s good, she just has a lot of studying to do for her Ancient Runes test, otherwise she would have come with us.”

“Are your parents going to make you go to the Greengrass’s Christmas party this year?” Sirius asked Zahra on Lily's other side.

Zahra groaned. “Unfortunately,” she said. “I’ve tried to get out of it for years, it’s so stuffy and boring, but my dad still works for Alfred Greengrass, so we _have_ to.”

“Just tell him you’re not going!” Sirius said. “That’s what I told my mum, and honestly I think she’s stopped caring now that she has Regulus to parade around to all her elitist friends.” 

Zahra looked at him. “Er…have you met my family, Sirius?” I’d be lucky to be alive if I said something like that. C’mon, if I I have to go, you do too, don’t abandon me with all the creepy Slytherin boys, we can prank them like we did last year.”

“What did you do?” Lily asked, curious. She hadn’t realized that Zahra and Sirius were friends, but she supposed it made sense, they probably grew up together in the same pure-blood family circles.

“Some Slytherin wanker was trying to chat up Zahra, just being a real pig, you know, so I gave him a pig’s nose.” Sirius smirked.

“I love Christmas party pranks,” James cut in “Remember at the Macmillian’s Christmas party third year?” he asked Sirius.  “When Astoria Greengrass wore that horrible hat with the stuffed vulture?”

“And then we turned it into an actual vulture,” Sirius said nostalgically. “Good times.”

The whole table burst out laughing, just as Jack and Peter came back clutching large, steaming mugs of butterbeer. Lily took hers and happily took a sip.

Peter dug out a pack of exploding snap, and they all played a few rounds, talking and laughing and taking bets on who would be the first to get singed. It was so much fun that Lily wondered why they didn’t spend more time with the Marauders. Her stupid feud with James ever since first year had made her miss out on so much, and she was gladder than ever that they were now on better terms.”

After her 5th loss in a row, Lily finally threw down her cards in defeat. “Alright, I give up” she groaned, Sirius, the undefeated champion took several mock bows across the table. “I’m going up to get another butterbeer, anyone else want anything?”

But before she could move, the pub door burst open with a bang. Two figures dressed in long black robes with hoods swept into the pub, their wands raised threateningly. Several people screamed. James and Sirius immediately sprung to their feet.

“Death Eaters.” Sirius hissed. “Stay down,” he told Lily and Mary, the two Muggleborns at the table, but Lily shook her head, drawing her own wand. The whole pub had fallen deathly silent. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Madam Rosmarta asked the two Death Eaters angrily. “This is a peaceful establishment and I will NOT have wands raised in my pub.”

One of the hooded figures chuckled. He pointed his wand so that it was pointed right between her eyes.

“We are here for two small reasons.” He said in a deep voice. His partner was scanning the crowd, looking for anyone who might attempt to fight back. Lily had grabbed tight on the back of James’s jacket to keep him from launching himself at the Death Eater, and Remus was doing the same on the other side of the table to Sirius.

“First,” the hooded man continued. “We require a erm, donation, to the Dark Lord and his cause.” He gestured to the cash register. Rosmarta opened it and roughly shoved a handful of gold across the bar. 

“There. Take it. Now leave.” She said fiercely.

The Death Eater chuckled again. “Not so fast, my dear. We also need the names of every Mudblood student who is currently sitting in this pub. For…. registration purposes.” 

James stepped directly in front of Lily, shielding her from the Death Eaters sight. Remus, Zahra, and Peter all grabbed Mary’s shoulders and forced her underneath the table.

“Certainly,” Rosmarta said icily. Lily’s grip on James’s jacket tightened. “Let’s see… there’s John Gofuckyourself, and he’s sitting right over there.” She pointed behind the Death Eater’s shoulder, who turned to look. At that moment, Rosemarta swung one of the heavy pewter pints that she kept below the counter at the Death Eater’s head. That same moment, Sirius and James yelled “Stupefy!” and before they could even react, the two Death Eaters were knocked out. 

People were screaming, and it took several bursts of firecrackers from James’s wand before everyone quieted down. “EVERYONE LISTEN UP” he yelled, standing on the table so he could be seen. 

“Those two are almost certainly not the only two Death Eaters in the village. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Hogsmeade is currently under attack.” There were panicked murmurs coming from the crowd. “Here’s what we need to do,” James continued, louder. “Anyone in 6th or 7th year who would like to stay and help the villagers fight can do so. Otherwise, we need to get all you lot safely back to the castle.” 

 “Why should we listen to you?” a fifth year Ravenclaw called. “You’re just a dumb Quidditch player.”

Lily scrambled up onto the table to join him. “Yeah, Stebbins, but I’m a prefect,” she called back. “And I agree with him.” James threw her a grateful look. 

“Mary, Zahra, Peter,” Lily said. “Can you three take the younger students back up to the castle? Go down the back roads, even go into the forest if you have to, but make sure they all get safely back in their common rooms.” The three of them nodded. “Alright, who is staying to help fight?” Lily asked. “This is serious, and people could get hurt, so please make sure you are prepared if you volunteer.” A handful of older students raised their hands, including James, Sirius, Marlene, and Jack. “Okay, let’s go.”

Lily and James hopped off the table. Mary, Zahra and Peter were getting a headcount of younger students before they head out, and Lily took the group of students staying to fight over by the door.

“We should split up to cover more ground,” Lily said, and James nodded.

“Sirius, you go with Remus, Marlene with Jack, Anjali with Benjy, Jenny with Nadia, and Lily, you can come with me.” he said. “Wands out, help the villagers if you can, but don’t do anything stupid.” 

They all nodded and set off into the street. The sky was grey and snow was still falling, so visibility was limited. The pairs started breaking off down the various streets. James and Lily walked on down the main road, their wands raised and squinting into the snow. For a while neither of them talked as they kept their eyes and ears open for any sign of Death Eater activity. After a few minutes, Lily heard bangs and shouts coming from farther down the road. A shop had burst into flames and several black hooded figures stood in front of it, laughing.

“There,” Lily nudged James and pointed. He squared his shoulders. 

“Let’s go,” he said, and they ran towards the source of the commotion.

The Death Eaters turned and laughed to see the two sixteen year olds running down the snowy main road. One of them shot a purple spell towards them, which Lily deflected with a quick shield charm. James managed to stun one of the Death Eaters, but their advantage did not last long.

“On your left!” James yelled, and Lily narrowly avoided getting hit with a bolt of green light. She shot back the furunculous curse, and ducked behind a trash can as a Death Eater deflected it and sent it bouncing back to her.  It was then that she heard James cry out in pain.

He had slipped on a patch of ice and had twisted his ankle hard. A Death Eater was standing over him, his wand raised. Lily sprang to her feet and cried “Stupefy!” A bolt of red light hit him directly in the chest, and she dashed over to James. 

“Can you walk?” she asked him breathlessly, dragging him up by the armpits. 

“Barely,” James winced. “I think it’s broken.” 

“We’ll go down that side street,” Lily said quickly, pointing to an alley several yards away. The Death Eaters were starting to regroup, and the three ones still standing were baring down on the pair of them. “C’mon, lean on me.” 

She swung James’s arm around her shoulder and half walked, half dragged him towards the alley. The Death Eaters followed slowly, taking their time, and it didn’t take long for Lily to realize why. The alley way was a dead end. They were trapped.

She continued to shoot curses in the Death Eaters direction as she and James stumbled further down the alley, but it was hard to aim with James’s arm around her neck. The snow was deeper here, which made it harder to walk already, and the color was quickly starting to drain from his face. The three Death Eaters were laughing. Lily and James soon reached the end of the alley and the Death Eaters fanned out into a line, blocking their only means of escape.

“Ah, a blood traitor AND a Mudblood” one of them said in a deep accent that Lily couldn’t place. “The Dark Lord will be very pleased to see the deaths of these two, I think.”

“NO!” Lily yelled. She aimed a curse at his head, but he ducked and only laughed harder.

Suddenly, the air around them grew very cold. The Death Eaters began to murmur to themselves excitedly. Lily looked wildly at James for an explanation, but he only tightened his grip on her hand. His face had gone stark white. 

“Change of plans,” the Death Eater said. “You two will not be dying today. But fear not, yours is a fate that is worse than death. Much worse.”

And with that, the three hooded figures disapperated with a small pop. Lily had only a few seconds to look wildly around before she felt it. The air had gone impossibly cold. Icicles on the nearby buildings crackled as they thickened, and Lily’s and James’s breaths came out in clouds. Strangely though, the snow had stopped falling. But it wasn’t just the weather. A feeling of hopelessness washed over Lily, a desire to lay down in the snow and just let the elements take her. And then she saw them.

A line of black hooded creatures glided silently down the alleyway towards Lily and James. As they came closer, Lily heard a strange sound, a deep rattling breath, almost like they were trying to suck the very life straight out of the air. 

 _Dementors_ , she thought.

“Dementors, James, we have to fight them!” she said, but James only groaned. His eyes were fluttering, and Lily knew he would never produce a patronus in his weakened state. The feeling of hopelessness grew stronger; it was as though her head was filled with a thick suffocating fog.

 _What’s the point?_ said a little voice in her head. _You’re going to die, just like your father is dying now. Stop resisting and give up now._

“ _Expec-Expecto Patronum_ …” Lily said weakly. Only a feeble wisp of silver came out of her wand. The dementors drew back for a second, but not for long. 

“You need…a happy memory, Lils.” James said weakly. He was barely keeping himself upright now, and it was all Lily could do to keep him from slipping onto the snow. “Focus,” he told her.

There was no time to think of a perfect memory. Lily’s first thoughts were of earlier that day in the Three Broomsticks, talking and laughing with her friends. She thought of Mary, and Marlene, and Zahra, and Jame _s_ …

“ _Expecto Patronum_!” She cried. 

A four-legged creature burst from the tip of her wand and galloped towards the line of dementors. They scattered, and as they flew from the alleyway Lily instantly felt a rush of warmth fill the air and enter her body. Her patronus paused, then turned and cantered back to James and Lily, who could only stand there in shock. Lily suddenly realized what her patronus was, but it was James who said it first.

“A doe,” he said hoarsely. His face was roughly the same color as the snow around them. “Your patronus is a doe.” And he fainted.

 

* * *

 

 Lily wasn’t exactly sure how they all managed to get back to the castle in one piece. Once they villagers had realized they were under attack, one of them had sounded the alarm and alerted Hogwarts. Several teachers had rushed down to assist with the fighting, including McGonagall, Slughorn, and Flitwick. They had run into Marlene and Jack over by Dervish and Bangs, who pointed them in the direction of James and Lily. Professor McGonagall was very agitated indeed when she found them. She conjured a splint for James’s ankle and shut him and Lily up in a horseless carriage with Marlene, Jack, Sirius, and Remus that would taken them all back up to the castle. When Lily told her about the Death Eaters and dementors, she simply shook her head, muttering that it was the stupidest, most carelessly brave thing she had ever seen the pair of them do.

“Well, we’re Gryffindors, Professor,” James said weakly as Sirius helped him up into the carriage. “What did you expect?” 

Lily couldn’t help but giggle at the look Professor McGonagall gave him at that. 

James was immediately admitted to the hospital wing, but the rest of the Gryffindors, who had survived with only minor cuts and bruises, were quickly released back to their common room. Marlene and Jack headed back up to Gryffindor tower, but Lily lingered with Sirius and Remus, hoping to have a quick word with James before she left.

“How are you feeling, Prongs?” Sirius asked him.

James grinned. Most of the color had returned to his face, and his newly healed ankle was propped up on a stack of pillows. “Promfrey says I’ll be as good as new in a few hours,” he said. “And it’s all thanks to Evans over here. She saved my life…er, well, my soul that is.”

Lily blushed as Sirius and Remus looked at her in astonishment. “It was nothing,” she muttered.

“I’m not sure I’d call casting a fully corporeal patronus under duress _nothing_ …” James said teasingly, but he was interrupted as a blur of auburn hair rushed into the hospital wing and threw her arms around his neck.

“The one day I decide to skip a Hogsmeade trip to study,” Marguerite wailed, “you attack a group of Death Eaters? Merlin, James what the hell were you thinking?”

“I’m fine!” James protested. Marguerite drew back to give him a look. “Really,” he said, “I’m okay.” His hand came up to brush her cheek and Marguerite leaned into his touch with a contented sigh. 

“I think that’s our cue to leave, Evans,” Sirius muttered, and Lily nodded. She had just started to walk toward the door with the two Marauders when James called her name.

“Lily,” he said softly. Marguerite was tucked up into his side and he was stroking her hair lightly with his hand. “Thank you.”

Lily could only nod in response. She turned on her heel and followed Sirius and Remus out of the hospital wing. 

“Alright, Evans?” Sirius asked her as the three of them climbed the steps up to Gryffindor Tower. Lily started at the familiar phrase.

“What?” she said. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fine.”

 

* * *

James was released from the hospital wing the next day. By that time the news of the attack had spread through the school, and accounts on what exactly had happened differed wildly. Lily spent half the morning trying to convince a wide-eyed first year that no, she and James had _not_ fought off a hoard of a hundred Death Eaters and Inferni single-handedly.

The sixth years last class of the term was Defense Against the Dark Arts, where they were presenting their final projects on defensive spells. Lily tapped her foot as the other groups went, anxious to just get it all over with. Finally, Professor Bellator called their names. James looked at her and gave an encouraging nod. She got up and walked to the front of the class, scroll and wand in hand. James was close behind her.

“For our project,” she said, “We decided to research the Patronus Charm.” There was a murmur of interest from the class.

James went on to describe the history and theory of the charm, while Lily explained its uses and special features.

“the corporeal Patronus,” she said, “takes the shape of an animal that is unique to the witch or wizard who casts it and reflects that person’s innermost personality. Patronuses can change form, though this is rare, and it is thought to happen in times of great emotional upheaval, such as experiencing an intense trauma, or even falling in love. In the event that a Patronus changes to be the same form between two castors, it is usually a sign of a deep infatuation or love from one or both of the parties. Complementary patronuses, such as the male and female version of the same animal are also thought to be a sign of compatibility between two castors.”

“Well, you seem to have done a thorough job in your research,” Professor Bellator said when they had finished. “Good work.” James looked over at Lily with a wide smile. “But have either of you managed to cast a corporeal Patronus?” 

“Actually, yes.” James said proudly. “Lily can. Go on, show them,” he told her encouragingly.

Lily squared her shoulders. Thinking about going to spend Christmas with her family, she raised her wand.

“Expecto Patronum!” she cried. 

The silver doe burst from her wand once more and leapt gracefully around the classroom. The students oohed and ahhed and Lily could tell that even Professor Bellator was impressed, though she tried not to show it. Severus Snape however, was watching the doe with wide eyes. His face was pale and stricken, and he looked almost scared.

The class burst into applause as the doe faded and Lily was pulled out her thoughts. She beamed at her classmates and at James and sat down again feeling like she was walking on air.

“That was amazing, Lily!” Mary cried. She was one of many who had crowded around Lily and James as the bell rang, talking excitedly and congratulating Lily on performing such a difficult piece of magic.

“Did you see the look on Snape’s face?” James muttered as they finally managed to pull themselves away from the crowd of sixth years.

“Why did he look so horrified to see my patronus?” Lily whispered.

James looked furtively around them to make sure no one was listening. He leaned in closer, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Well--and I don’t say this lightly, Lily—there were more Death Eaters around than the ones we faced in that alley, and they were bound to see your patronus attack the dementors. There’s a fair chance that Snape was one of them.”

Lily’s stomach dropped. She wanted nothing more than to shout at James, to say that he was wrong, that there was no way Severus would do something like that, but the truth was, she simply just didn’t know anymore.

“I’m afraid you might be right,” she said sadly.

 

~End of Chapter 4~ 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting exciting now, aren't they? Hopefully this is enough for a while, as I won't have time to post again for some time. But as always, thanks for reading and don't forget to Kudos/Comment!
> 
> ~halosun


	5. Chapter 5

Christmas in Cokeworth was cold and green.

Lily had been greeted at Kings Cross station by a surly looking Petunia, who had been instructed to pick her up on her way to their parent’s house, as Petunia lived in London now for her new typing job. It was a mostly silent ride, despite Lily’s brave attempts to make small talk and ask how her boyfriend Vernon was doing, and Lily’s spirits fell further when they drove into Cokeworth to see not a single spot of snow on the ground. It was very much in contrast to the winter wonderland she had left behind at Hogwarts.

They pulled up to the little brown house that had belonged to the Evans family for as long as Lily could remember, and she smiled to see the familiar green and red Christmas garlands lining the windows. Lily was just pulling Morgana out of the car while Petunia struggled with their trunks when the door swung open and Mrs. Evans rushed out in a flour-covered apron to great them enthusiastically. Lily noticed she looked thinner, and cast a worried look at Petunia as they dragged their trunks inside.

“Where’s Dad?” Lily asked, after her mother had hugged them both tightly and ushered them into the kitchen.

Mrs. Evans’s smiled faded slightly. “We have him set up in the living room,” she said. “It’s better for his lungs to have him sleep sitting up, and this way he can watch his football whenever he wants.

Lily smiled. Her father was a dedicated Chelsea supporter, and she could hear the the familiar sounds of the announcers coming from the living room now.

She walked over. Mr. Evans was sitting back in his favorite reclining chair, turned to the television with a blanket over his legs. He looked noticeably weaker and his head was covered in a thick woolen cap to hide his bald head, a result of the chemotherapy, but his eyes were bright as he looked up and realized that his daughter was standing in front of him.

“Lily!” He croaked out with a raspy voice. “Come over here and give me a hug!”

Lily did as she was told and drew back, grabbing his hand.

“How are you?” she asked. “Mum seemed pretty worried in her last letter…”

Her father chuckled weakly. “I gave the doctors a bit of a scare for a while, but I’m doing a lot better now. They say it’s because the chemo has finally started to fight the cancer cells, but I think I was just excited to see my both daughters home at last.”

He winked at her, and Lily couldn’t help but smile back.

“So, how are your studies going?” Mr. Evans asked as Lily perched herself on the arm of his armchair. “Learn anything interesting this term?”

“I learned how to make a flock of birds appear out of thin air,” Lily said, and her father’s eyes widened. Both of her parents had always been fascinated by her magical studies, much to Petunia’s chagrin.

“Blimey,” Mr. Evans said. “You’ll have to show me that sometime.”

Lily was just beginning to explain the finer points of the theory of the spell when Mrs. Evans called them in from the kitchen.

“Dinner’s ready,” she said.

‘Help me up, Lily, that’s a girl,” Mr. Evans grunted as Lily drew him out of the armchair as delicately as she could.

He leaned heavily on her arm as they shuffled to the dinner table, where Mrs. Evans had prepared a delicious looking spread of roast beef, buttery potatoes, and greens, which Lily knew to be even better than Hogwarts’s finest cooking.

“Hopefully you girls will get to have a nice holiday,” Mrs. Evans said as she piled everyone’s plates with food. “In spite of the rather un-festive weather.” She smiled at Lily, who looked out the window with a dramatic sigh.

“I do wish we had a little bit of snow,” Lily said. “There’s just something so magical about a white Christmas.”

Petunia, who had been drinking form her wineglass, nearly chocked and spat out her wine at the word “magical”. Lily rolled her eyes at her.

“It’s just a phrase Tuney. Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn your all presents into porcupines.”

“Girls,” Mr. Evans said softly, and Lily shut her mouth, feeling slightly guilty.

He coughed and raised his own glass, smiling at his wife and two daughters.

“Let’s have a toast,” he said. “To Christmas, food, and most importantly, family.”

Lily smiled as they all clinked their glasses together, feeling very glad that she was finally home at last.

 

* * *

 

Christmas Day came unfortunately still green, but with a glittering sheet of frost on the front lawn that sparkled in the bright morning sun. Lily got out of bed and stretched luxuriously. Morgona watched her from her perch on Lily’s desk chair with narrowed eyes. She was still upset that Lily had put a jingle bell on her collar in an effort to make her look more festive. The delicious scent of cinnamon buns wafted up the stairs, followed closely by Mrs. Evans’s call that breakfast was ready. Grinning, Lily pulled on her most festively colored sweater over her pajamas and scampered down the stairs.

There were three new parcels sitting on the kitchen table when Lily walked in the room. Petunia had come down right before her and was eyeing them suspiciously.

“Who are those for, Mum?” she asked Mrs. Evans, who taking the kettle off the stove to make tea.

“Oh, they’re for Lily,” Mrs. Evans said distractedly. She turned to Lily and smiled. “You’ve had…what do you call it? Owl mail?”

“Owl post” Lily said, laughing. “I guess they’re presents from my Hogwarts mates, how sweet.”

“Wait,” Petunia said sharply. “There was an owl here? On this table? I thought I told you that those great bloody birds weren’t allowed in the house anymore!” she hissed at Lily. “Especially what that last one did to my Burberry purse!” She closed her eyes and shuddered at the memory. Lily had to stop herself from laughing as she was reminded of the time that Marlene's family owl had left a pile of owl droppings in Petunia's fancy new leather purse, a birthday gift from Vernon.

“No, no they were dropped through the chimney, don’t worry” Mrs. Evans said. “Just like Santa Claus.” She winked at Lily.

While Petunia retreated to the living room with a cup of tea (throwing a nasty look at Lily as she went), and Mrs. Evans went to help Mr. Evans get dressed, Lily sat at the kitchen table and opened her parcels. The first was a fancy-looking painted cardboard box tied with a dark green ribbon from Zahra. Her family was on holiday in Italy, and Zahra had gotten Lily an Italian leather wallet that was charmed to have any money in it disappear if anyone but the owner opened it. The second parcel, from Marlene, was a beautiful emerald green scarf that matched her eyes almost exactly. The third, from Mary, was simply three books wrapped in parchment paper and tied with string. There was a letter tucked into the top and Lily opened it to read

_Happy Christmas Lily!_

_These are three of my absolute favorite Jane Austen books (you know, the Muggle author who I keep bugging you to read?) Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion. I know you have a problem with finishing books, but do actually read these, and read them fast, because I want to discuss them when you’re done! I'm sure you'll love them._

_Many XOXOXO,_

_-Mary_

Lily laughed at her friend and unwrapped the books. Mary had been trying to turn her into an avid reader of classic Muggle British literature for years now, but it had yet to really work. Lily didn’t mind reading, per say, but she always seemed to get bored halfway through a book and always ended up abandoning it. Her room was full of books half-read that were simply gathering dust on her poor neglected bookshelf. But Mary had gone out of her way to actually buy these books for Lily, so she supposed she had better make an effort at finishing them.

“I’ll make it part of my New Year’s Resolution” she decided. “That I am going to finish all of these books by the end of this spring term.” Better get started now, she thought. She grabbed the first book on the stack and a cup of tea and headed over to the living room to read until the rest of the family was ready to open presents.

 

* * *

 

Later that evening after Christmas dinner, the Evans family always retired to the living room to eat the remaining Christmas cookies and listen to some holiday records. Mrs. Evans was stretched out on the couch, with a straight-backed Petunia sitting primly next to her. Mr. Evans sat in his usual reclining chair close to the fireplace, and Lily had placed herself at his feet. It was peaceful, with the crooning of Dean Martin coming from the radio and the flickering light of the fire, and Lily looked happily up at her father. He smiled back at her and coughed, clearing his throat.

“Tuney” he called, and Petunia looked up. “Wasn’t there something you wanted to tell us after dinner?”

Her face suddenly lit up, and she scrambled to her feet. "Yes there is!" she said.

Lily looked at her, bewildered. She hadn’t seen her sister look this excited in years.

“I have some news,” Petunia said. “It happened a few weeks ago, but I was waiting for us all to be together before we told it.”

“What is it, Tuney?” Mrs. Evans said curiously.

Petunia took a big breath and smiled widely. “I’m engaged!” she squealed. “Vernon proposed to me two weeks ago!”

Mrs. Evans gave a screech of happiness and jumped up to hug her, while Mr. Evans clapped loudly, a large smile on his face. Lily could only sit there dumbfounded.

“Where’s the ring?” Mrs. Evans cried, taking Petunia’s hand.

Petunia laughed. “Vernon had to take it to get it re-sized, the stone was just too big and heavy for my poor finger” she said proudly. Lily had to resist rolling her eyes.

“Aren’t you happy for me Lily?” Petunia asked, noting her less than enthusiastic reaction.

“Of course I am!” Lily said, plastering a rather tight smile on her face. “It’s just…a little soon though, don’t you think? You’ve only known each other for a year.”

“What’s the point of waiting when you know that you’re simply meant for each other?” Petunia sniffed. “But what would you know, I suppose you can’t find a boy to fancy you at that freak school anyways.”

“Petunia…” Mr. Evans said warningly.

“C’mon” Petunia said to her mother. “Let’s go finish up the dishes, and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

They left, chatting excitedly and laughing. Lily fell silent against her father’s armchair for a long time. She didn’t want to admit it, but Petunia’s comments had struck a nerve. It was true that she hadn’t really dated anyone since Michael Higgins at the beginning of 5th year, and even that was only for a few months. She still got offers to go to Hogsmeade now and then, but lately, she was turning more and more of them down. Her heart just wasn’t in it. There were other, more important things, to worry about than boys just now.

Mr. Evans reached down and put a hand on her shoulder. “You alright, Lils?” he asked. Lily started.

“Yeah…” she said cautiously. “I just can’t believe Tuney is engaged. And to Vernon Dursley, of all people.”

“I think it’s a good match,” her father said.

“But Vernon is just so…so…boring,” Lily said. “What does she see in him?”

“Now, now, Lily, it doesn’t matter what he’s like if she really loves him. And he’ll make a good, comfortable life for her. That’s important.”

“I guess…” Lily said.

“What about you?” Mr. Evans teased. “Any boys that you have you eye on currently?

“No, not at the moment,” Lily said with a laugh.

“What about that James Potter boy?” Mrs. Evans said. Lily turned to face him so quickly that she got a crick in her neck.

“What about him?” she said sharply.

Mr. Evans shrugged. “You always used to talk about how annoying he was, but lately your letters have had a lot less complaints about him,” he said with a knowing smile.

“Well... he's grown up a lot this year,” Lily said, not daring to meet her father’s eyes. “We worked on a project together this term and I don’t know, I guess we’re kind of friends now?”

“Just friends?” Mr. Evans teased.

“Yes, Dad, just friends!” Lily said, glaring at her father. “Besides, he has a girlfriend, so I couldn’t be more even if I wanted to, which I don’t.”

“Hmm,” was all Mr. Evans said though, his mouth twitching as if he were trying to hide a smile.

Lily was saved a response by the return of Petunia and her mum holding out a tray of Christmas cookies.

“Last call for gingerbread before bed!" Mrs. Evans said. Lily gratefully took one.

 

* * *

 

 

It was the afternoon of New Years Eve, and Lily was halfway through the third chapter of _Pride and Prejudice_ when she was interrupted by the sound of an owl frantically tapping on her bedroom window.

“Alright, I’m coming,” she grumbled and opened the window to let it inside. It was a gorgeous tawny owl that she had never seen before, and she wondered who it could possibly belong to. Maybe Zahra or Marlene had gotten a new owl for Christmas?

She untied the letter from the owl’s leg. Her name was scrawled across the parchment in messy handwriting, as if the writer was in a hurry. To her surprise, the owl didn’t take off when she relieved it of the letter, instead, it simply blinked at her, as if it were waiting for her to write a response. She unfolded the parchment and read:

_Lily—_

_Sorry to bother you over the hols, but this is an emergency. I was supposed to meet Sirius at the Leaky Cauldron for lunch, but he hasn’t shown up, and I haven’t been able to contact him in other ways either (I’ll tell you what I mean later, it’s too risky to put in a letter)._

_I know you live close to London, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered you. Would you mind helping me look for him? There’s a fair chance that he probably just forgot and is currently lying in bed with a massive hangover, but if not… I don’t really want to think about it._

_Send your response by this owl, his name is Hercules, my dad just gave him to me as a Christmas present._

_Hoping to see you soon,_

_James_

Lily looked up at the owl, who was now hooting loudly and walking about on her desk. She laughed. Hercules was certainly a good name for him. With his feathers all puffed out and strutting self-importantly around her room, he reminded her a lot of a younger version of his owner.

She tore off a corner of the parchment and quickly wrote a response.

_James—_

_I’ll be there in an hour._

_Hope everything is ok._

_Lily_

After Hercules had flown off with her letter, Lily quickly pulled on a sweater, her coat and boots. She said goodbye to her parents and headed off for the bus stop to catch a bus that would take her into London.

Lily had told her parents that she was meeting some friends in London for a New Years drink. She felt bad for lying, but telling the truth would mean she would have to explain about the war in the wizarding world, and she didn’t want them to worry about her, especially with Mr. Evans’s current condition. But Lily couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy as the bus started off down the highway. It was very unlike Sirius to just disappear, especially without telling James, and there had been a worrying amount of Death Eater activity in the greater London area lately. James was right to be worried about him.

The bus dropped her off in the very middle of downtown, only a few blocks away from the Leaky Cauldron, and Lily walked the rest of the way there, her wand concealed up the sleeve of her sweater. It was almost 5:00 PM and already starting to get dark. She ducked into the Leaky Cauldron, which, in stark contrast to the bustling London streets, had only a few scattered tables filled with witches and wizards, all with rather hardened, suspicious looks on their faces.

A hand touched her elbow, and Lily turned to see James, looking rather pale but pleased to see her.

“I’m sitting over here,” he said, gesturing to a small table by the window.

They walked over and sat down. James pushed a bottle of butterbeer towards her. A half eaten box of fish and chips lay on the table, and Lily’s stomach rumbled. She hadn’t had the chance to eat dinner.

“Take it,” James said, noticing her eyeing the box. “I haven’t been able to eat much; I’ve been too worried.”

Lily gratefully stuffed a few chips in her mouth. “So you haven’t heard from Sirius at all today?” she asked thickly.

James shook his head. “He was supposed to meet me at 1:00 PM for lunch, but he never showed.”

“How else did you try to contact him?” Lily asked. “You said you couldn’t say it over owl…”

James leaned in and lowered his voice. “We have a set of Two-Way Mirrors. Use ‘em mostly to talk to each other over summer break or when we’re stuck in separate detentions.” He grinned sheepishly and looked down. “But you can imagine what would happen if one of them fell into the wrong hands, so we like to keep quiet about it.”

Lily nodded, knowing better by now than to be surprised by this. “So you tried to contact him via mirror and he didn’t respond?”

James shook his head. “It just turned this blank gray color, almost like he turned it off, but he’s never done that before, he always answers. I checked all over Diagon Alley before you got here too, and nothing. I don’t know, Lily, I really think something may have happened to him.”

He had a desperate look in his eyes, and Lily couldn’t help but feel her heart clench a bit at his words.

“We’ll find him,” she said, trying to reassure herself as much as him. “I’ve been to Muggle London plenty of times before, so I know my way around, and don’t you think that’s where he’d go if he didn’t want to be found?”

James nodded, looking slightly less anxious. “We could check over by his house, in Grimmauld Place. He can’t have gone far.

Lily smiled at him. “Great,” she said, grabbing one last final chip and standing up from the table. “Come on, there’s not much daylight left, and it’s going to start getting real crowded on the streets soon.”

And with that, they walked out of the Leaky Cauldron and onto the twilight streets of Muggle London.

Lily had no idea where Grimmauld Place was, and seeing as James had only been there once before via flu network, Lily decided that their best bet was to ask a Muggle policeman which part of London it was located in.

To her relief, Lily was told that Grimmauld Place was in Islington, and only about a twenty-minute walk away.

“ONLY a twenty-minute walk?” James said, staring at the policeman.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, James that’s not that bad, we’ll be there before you know it.”

“I’ll freeze before we get there” James muttered, crossing his arms. The temperature was dropping rapidly as the sun went down, and it was getting windier.

“Well, maybe you should have worn a heavier coat then,” Lily said, eyeing his thin suede jacket. “Thank you,” she told the policeman.

The policeman grinned. “Not a problem, miss.” He turned to James. “I’d listen to your girlfriend more if I were you, mate. She seems like a smart one.” He winked.

“She’s not…” James began to say, but Lily was already pulling him away down the street.

They walked on into the Islington borough. The streets were crowded with Muggle tourists pouring into and out of various bars in celebration of New Years Eve. Lily led them on without stopping, even when a group of obviously drunk Muggle men whistled appreciatively at her from a doorway. James shot them a murderous look, but Lily kept walking without even a backwards glance.

“Just ignore them,” she muttered. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

At last, they reached the neighborhood where Grimmauld Place was located. It was pitch dark at this point and with still no sign of Sirius, Lily was starting to get discouraged. They walked up and down the street with their wands just up their sleeves. Sirius’s family were known Death Eater sympathizers, as well as the close relatives of several Death Eaters themselves, and Lily was not looking to run into the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange tonight.

They canvassed the whole neighborhood and even a few blocks beyond, but still nothing. They stopped at the end of the main street, and James collapsed onto the curb with his head in his hands.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” he muttered, his face hidden from Lily’s.

Lily sat down next to him and tentatively place a hand on his left shoulder. “Think.” She said. “We’re not going to assume the worst just yet. Sirius has been talking about running away from home for ages, what if he finally snapped and actually did it? Where would be the first place he’d go?”

James looked up slowly. “He always said…the first thing he’d do when he left home would be to buy a motorcycle, he’s wanted one for ages, but his dad wouldn’t ever let him have one.”

“Hmm…a motorcycle…” Lily said. “So he would go to a bike shop right?”

James nodded.

“And I’m pretty sure we passed one a while ago on Upper Street!” Lily said excitedly. “C’mon!”

They raced towards Upper Street and quickly found the bike shop, a dingy little store with a flickering pink neon sign spelling out the word OPEN. The owner was just locking up for the night and sighed when he saw Lily and James come to a screeching halt in front of him, panting hard.

“I’ve just closed up,” he said. “It’s a holiday, you can come back January 2nd.”

‘We don’t…want a bike…” Lily said breathlessly.

“We were just wondering if you had a customer in here earlier today that bought a motorcycle,” James said quickly. “About our age, bloke with long black hair?”

“Oh, you mean Sirius?” The owner said. “Nice boy, though he did seem a little down today. He’s been coming here for ages to stare at our bikes but he just finally bought one of his own, said it was a late Christmas present to himself.”

Lily and James looked at each other excitedly.

“Did he happen to mention where he was going next?” Lily said.

“Said he was going to celebrate at The Flaming Arrow.”

Lily and James looked confused, so he elaborated. “The punk rock pub down the street? It’s just a few blocks south of here.”

Lily almost hugged the man on the spot. She and James thanked him excitedly and raced on down the street.

“Of course Sirius would go to a punk rock pub!” Lily said laughing, as she and James found the twisted iron sign of The Flaming Arrow. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”

“What in the name of Merlin is punk rock?” James asked her.

Lily grinned. “You’re about to find out.” she said.

They walked into the pub. It was dark, other than the strange glow of pink and purple neon lights. The air was full of a smoky haze, and a punk band was playing on the small raised stage in the corner. Everyone seemed to have long hair, even the men, and they were all wearing plaid, black T-shirts, ripped jeans, or some combination of the three. The music was so loud it was hard to hear anything, much less talk to each other.

James glanced around the packed pub. “I can see why Sirius likes this place, he fits right in with this lot!” he yelled.

Lily, who had been looking towards the bar, suddenly noticed a tangle of long black hair. She nudged James. “There, I think I see him” she said.

They inched their way to the bar. Sirius was indeed there, slumped over on a seat and obviously very drunk. His head was in his arms and he didn’t even look up as they approached him, even when James roughly shook his shoulder and yelled his name.

“You lot ‘ere to collect your friend?” the bartender said, sliding over to them.

“How long has he been here?” Lily asked him.

The bartender shrugged. “Since this afternoon, I reckon. He’s drunk as a skunk, he is.” He chuckled.

“SIRIUS.” James yelled over the pounding music, holding Sirius’s head up so he could look James in the face. “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

Sirius only groaned, swatting at James’s hands.

“We’re going to have to wait for him to sober up,” Lily said. “Is there a place close by where we can stay for a couple hours?” she asked the bartender.

The bartender shrugged. “The Red Castle Inn is jus’ a block from ‘ere,” he said. “You could try that.”

Lily thanked him and helped James get Sirius off the barstool. They half dragged-half carried him out of the pub and to the thankfully close hotel, where Lily was able to get a room without too much trouble, other than a couple of disapproving looks from the receptionist.

They opened the door to their room and promptly dumped Sirius on the bed.

“This place have a bathroom?” James asked. “Cause he’s about to need some place to puke pretty soon.”

Lily wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. Just make sure he doesn’t do it on the bed. Yeah, there’s one over there.” She gestured to the small bathroom by the door.

James poked his head in curiously, then walked around the bed to look out the small window onto the balcony that overlooked the busy street below. “So this is where Muggles stay when they go on vacation.” he said.

Lily laughed. “Not exactly. This place is pretty cheap,” she said, gesturing to the sad shag carpet and peeling paint on the walls. “But with better furnishings, I’d say yeah, pretty much.”

“Hmm.” James said. They both fell silent, and Lily tried not to think of the awkward situation they were currently in. It didn’t seem so strange to be alone in London with James when they were busy searching for Sirius, but now they had found him, it was a little harder to ignore the fact was that they were out together late at night, on New Years Eve no less. And now they were in a cheap hotel room with a single bed. It was the premise of every bad romance novel Lily had ever read.

“How’s Marguerite?” Lily asked, searching around for any topic that would take her mind off any place she definitely didn’t want it to go.

James started. “Oh... she’s good,” he said. “She’s on holiday in France with her parents, otherwise I would have asked her to come too,” he said, and Lily could tell he meant it as a kind of apology for the situation. “I hope you didn’t have any New Years plans,” he mumbled.

Lily smiled. “Nothing unless you count watching the telly with my parents,” she said. “I told them I’d be out to drink with some friends, so I’m fine.”

There was a mumble from the bed, and James and Lily looked over to see Sirius beginning to stir.

“Hey, Padfoot,” James said, going over to sit on the bed next to him. “How’re you feeling?”

Sirius groaned as he sat up slowly, clutching his head. “Like shittt” he managed to slur out.

Lily made a “no kidding” noise, and Sirius looked over at her, confused.

“Whaz Evans doin’ here?” he asked James.

“Lily helped me find you, you idiot,” James said firmly. “What the hell was I supposed to think when I couldn’t reach you for an entire day? There’s a fucking war going on, you could have been dead for all I knew.”

Sirius winced. “Wish I was,” he mumbled.

“Was it something with your parents?” James asked. Sirius nodded. “What exactly happened?”

“You know, the usual,” Sirius said. “All of them spouting their blood purity hate speech, and then Mum decided that she wanted to invite Bella and the fucking Malfoys to dinner, and I said I refused to be in the room with that fucking _cow_ , and it just…” he drew a circle in the air with his finger “...spiraled from there.”

James sighed. “I’m sorry, Padfoot.” He said softly. “I wish you would have told me when it first happened.”

“S’kay.” Sirius said. “You couldn’t have done anything anyways. I’m used to being alone.” He scooted off the bed with some difficulty and hobbled off to the bathroom, where he started retching audibly.

James closed his eyes. The pain on his face was obvious and heartbreaking. For the second time that night, Lily sat down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. James sighed.

“Talk to me about something else, Lily.” He said. “If I keep thinking what I'm thinking right now I just know I’m going to punch something.”

“My sister got engaged,” Lily said, one of the first things that popped into her head. “To an absolute _whale_ of a drills salesman, honestly he must be three hundred pounds and he’s the dullest, most boring person I’ve ever met.”

James chuckled. “What’s a drills salesman?” he asked.

“I really don’t know, I tend to black out whenever Petunia starts to explain it, but I would imagine it has something to do with selling drills.”

James laughed loudly, and Lily couldn’t help but grin back at him. “How’s your dad doing?” he asked her.

Lily sighed. “He’s better,” she said, “But he’s pretty weak, he can hardly get up and walk around now, but he says that the doctors have said that the cancer cells are finally starting to die, which is good.” She looked down at her lap to escape James’s gaze. “It’s just hard to see him like this, you know?” she said. “I keep wishing there was some spell or charm I could use to make him better, but I know that there isn’t. Wizards aren’t really concerned with Muggle diseases.” She shook her head. “What good is magic if you can’t use it to heal the pain of the people you love?”

James looked sadly at the bathroom door. “I know what you mean,” he said.

 

* * *

 

 

Sirius emerged twenty minutes later and headed straight for the mini-fridge, where he pulled out one of the little bottles of cheap vodka left by the hotel staff.

“Erm, that may not be the best idea right now,” James said. He got up and tried to pry the bottle out of Sirius’s hands. Sirius evaded his reach and glared at James.

“My mother blasted me off our family tree. I’m broke, I’m homeless and alone, and I’m almost certainly a target for Death Eaters, who by the way, happen to be members of my family. I think I have the right to get as drunk as I possibly want” he told James. He took a swig of the vodka and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You wouldn’t understand; your family actually gives a damn about you” he said.

James looked speechless. He backed off and sat back down on the bed, looking defeated. Lily knew it was up to her to step in and stop Sirius from puking all over the already suspiciously stained shag carpet.

“He may not understand,” she told Sirius. “But I do.”

Sirius lowered the bottle slightly. He looked at her, and Lily took that as an invitation to continue.

“My sister hates me” she said. “She’s a muggle, a few years older than me, but we were best friends before I went to Hogwarts.” She sighed. She could feel both James’s and Sirius’s gazes on her, the former seated next to her on the bed and the latter now sitting facing them with his back against the wall.

“She never liked it when I did accidental magic as a child, and it only got worse once I met Severus and he told me that I was a witch. She was quite rude to him, whether because she was jealous or because he was even poorer than we were I don’t know, but he was pretty nasty to her as well.”

“I wonder why…” James muttered. Lily gave him a look and he fell silent again. She continued.

“I was so excited when I got my letter, and so were my parents. But Tuney…I don’t know if she was jealous, or scared, or what, but she decided that she hated everything about what I had become. She saw everything on Platform 9 and ¾ and called me a freak, right before I boarded the Hogwarts Express for the first time.”

“She hardly talks to me at all anymore unless our parents force her to, and when she does she can’t resist calling me a “freak” or “unnatural”. And she jumps like I’ve slapped her in the face every time I even just say the word “magic”. So yeah, I know what it’s like to have your family hate you for who you are.”

There was a long silence after she said those last few words. Lily glared at a spot on the bedspread, forcing herself not to make eye contact with either boy.

“Evans” Sirius said softly, and she looked up at him to find him extending a hand to her, a curious look in his eyes. “Come here.”

She slid down onto the floor next to him, taking his hand and squeezing it reassuringly.

“Fuck your elitist family,” Lily told him. “You have friends who are willing to walk around half the city of London to find you. If that doesn’t tell you that you have people who love and care about you, I don’t know what will.”

“You are always welcome at my parent’s house, Sirius, you know that” James said. “You can come live with me.” He chuckled. “I don't know if my parents will be able to handle two Marauders under one roof, but we’ll make it work.”

Sirius smiled wryly. “Alright. I call the big bedroom,” he said, and James grinned. He stood up from the bed and pulled Sirius to his feet and right into an enormous hug.

“You’re not alone, mate,” he said, clapping him on the back. “Don’t ever think that again.”

 

* * *

 

Lily had insisted that Sirius attempt to sleep off at least some of the alcohol, as he was still far too drunk to apparate, so Lily and James soon found themselves standing on the little balcony in an effort to escape the deafening snores coming from the bedroom.

Lily leaned against the railing and looked out on the busy street, where Muggles were happily walking around waving sparklers and wearing funny hats as 1976 drew to a close.

“Do you think it’s this festive in Diagon Alley tonight?” she asked James.

He smiled sadly and came over to stand next to her. “It looked like a ghost town when I was there earlier today, so I doubt it.” He shook his head as he watched the groups of merry revelers below. “I can’t believe that there’s a war going on only a few blocks away, and they have no idea.”

“It’s starting to get harder to ignore though,” Lily told him. “I haven’t told my parents about the war, I don’t want to scare them, but there’s been a lot of strange disappearances in the area lately, and they’ve definitely noticed. Even the weather is different. I came home and it was freezing cold and grey, but not an inch of snow on the ground. It’s not rare to have a green Christmas, but when we do, it’s normally warm.”

James frowned. “Dementors?” he said.

“It has to be,” Lily said. “They suck the happiness out of wherever they go, and everyone loves a white Christmas, so they have to take even that away from us.”

Just then, there was a shout of excitement from the street below. Lily quickly checked her watch, which now read 11:59.

"Merlin, it’s almost midnight!” she cried.

The partiers below had started the countdown. James looked at her, excited, and she grinned back.

“10…9…8…7...6…5…4…3…2…1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!” They all screamed in unison. Crackers were popped, party horns blown, people kissed each other and started singing “Auld Lang Syne” in various degrees of drunkenness. Lily pointed out the pops and bursts of light from the fireworks being set off all over the city. The colorful lights were reflected on James's face as he grinned at the display, and Lily couldn’t help but notice how young and happy he looked in that moment, the worries of the world momentarily forgotten.

She felt something cold and wet on her face, and looked up in amazement to see small flurries of snow beginning to fall.

“James look, it’s snowing!” she squealed, grabbing his arm excitedly.

James looked up in surprise, his eyes wide.

“I guess New Year’s Eve is the muggle version of the Patronus Charm” he said.

Lily couldn’t help but laugh, knocking her shoulder good-naturedly against his.

“Happy New Year, James” she told him, smiling up at his awestruck face.

He smiled down at her in return, his eyes soft. “Happy New Year, Lily” he said.

They looked out onto the celebrating London streets while the snow fell and the fireworks turned the clouds to brilliant colors as they ushered in the year 1977.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas in July! Maybe Lily is starting to feel something other than friendship for James? The next chapter will be up at the end of this week, (promise) so tune in then to find out!
> 
> If you liked the story, please kudos, COMMENT, and tell your friends!!
> 
> ~halosun


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